Alliance
by Archangel470
Summary: Ben Walker is just a normal rebel fighting to free Earth from the Combine, but when the Alliance and Collective arrive, his life changes forever. Alongside famous faces including Commander Shepard, Samus Aran and the Master Chief, Ben must join the Alliance and fight his hardest in order to rid the Collective for good, no matter the personal cost.
1. Prologue

"The choices I've made... The people I've lost... The battles I've fought... These things, along with my instincts, helped me survive in a world where humanity is no longer the dominant species to exist.

Twenty years ago, an incident occurred at the Black Mesa Research Facility in New Mexico. I was born there, and I was forced to watch as my home was nuked to oblivion. My parents died, but my elder brother and I survived. The aftermath was far worse as it was, in a way, the end of civilization as we knew it.

A multi-dimensional empire called the Combine invaded our world via numerous portals that suddenly opened up around the world. We fought as hard as we can, but despite our courage, our strength, our will to defend what's ours, we fell to their mercy within seven hours. The surrender was signed in New York by Wallace Breen, Black Mesa's administrator, and as a reward, he was made the administrator of the Combine's forces on Earth. A suppression field was also established worldwide, which resulted in our inability to re-produce. Life however, continued on as normal, but under the rule of an alien species, it was difficult. We're all struck by loss of family and friends, and lived in complete and utter darkness while there was no hope for salvation.

Some chose to give up their previous lives and accept the ones given to them by our new rulers. Others chose to fight back against our benefactors and try and take our world back from them. I chose the latter option, and joined the Resistance shortly after a tragedy that befell me.

The Resistance believed in Gordon Freeman, a scientist at Black Mesa who helped rappel the invasion of the Xen at the Black Mesa incident. Shortly afterwards, he disappeared, never to be seen again. Without him, we had no hope when the Combine attacked and took civilization from us. Some believe that we'll see him again someday, but until then, we continue to fight.

Today, I'm starting to lose faith. There's been no sign of Freeman, and we are slowly losing our war against the Combine. However, I'm starting to feel a sense of hope. Maybe not on Earth, but from beyond the stars.

My name is Benjamin Walker, and this is my story..."


	2. Chapter 1: Breakfast at Black Mesa East

Ben Walker awoke to the sounds of birds chirping, with the morning sun beaming through the window. Getting out of bed and taking a big yawn, Ben went over and looked out.

The view of the river that flows pass Black Mesa East never looked so beautiful in the mornings. The past was different though. The year is 2024. Twenty years have passed since the Black Mesa Incident, which was then followed by the Seven Hour War, which resulted in the Combine establishing their dominion over Earth. Ben was only 7 years old when these events happened, but he could remember large details on what had happened during the war, from when the first city fell, to when Wallace Breen, who is now Earth's Administrator, signed the official surrender in New York. Now, he is 27, but the past has treated him badly over the past years.

After a few minutes of admiring the view, Ben heads off to the bathroom, so that he could have a shower, brush his teeth, and get dressed, ready for the day. After he was dressed, he adjusts his brown, short spiky hair to look smart, then he began to head down to the cafeteria for breakfast, but it's not just food he was after.

Along the way, Ben saw how today was business as usual for the Resistance. He noticed several rebels having target practice by using dead Combine soldiers for dummies, as well as learning how Combine weaponry, such as the AR-2, can be effective for their own use. Other rebels, who chose not to fight, could be seen transporting supplies to and from Black Mesa East, as well as maintaining radio contact with other bases, such as White Forest and the many outposts within City 17. Many rebels look up to Eli Vance to make the right decisions around the base, as well as having hope that one day, Gordon Freeman, the One Free Man, will return.

Arriving in the cafeteria, Ben easily sees how packed the hall is every morning. Many rebels are lining up in a queue to get their food served by human and vortiganut chefs, while others are busy chatting away while they enjoy the delicious grub on their plates. Ben joins the queue, and once he's arrived at the front, gets a nice hot plate of sausages and eggs. Immediately after leaving the queue, Ben sees Emily Dawson at a table, beckoning him over, along with David Miller. Heading over to the table, Ben sits his plate next to Emily and sits down. Emily and Ben have had a crush on each other for two years now, and even since they've first met, Emily's long blonde hair is still looking as golden as ever. Her almost pale skin shines brightly like diamonds as the sun beams through the skylight above. David on the other hand had smooth black hair along his head, and even shines a tiny bit, due to the sun's position.

"Did you sleep well last night?" Emily asks Ben as he's munching on one of his sausages.

"Kind of." Ben replies.

"What was the problem?"

"I had a dream last night. A dream that I wish wasn't real."

"What was that dream like?" David asks, curiously.

"I was surrounded by dead bodies as White Forest burns in my view." Ben starts. "I was wearing armor, but I couldn't tell what it looked like. I also saw about three or four soldiers approaching me. They weren't Combine, but as soon as one of them starting firing I fired back, with some sort of weaponry you would normally see in a sci-fi movie."

"What did they look like?" Emily asks.

"They wore white armor with strokes of yellow down the sides and on their chests, along with helmets that displayed red light in their eyes." Ben continued. "I eventually killed them, but then I heard someone running up behind me. I turned round, and saw a man that from my perspective looked Chinese. He pins me down and while I was struggling, he puts a white pistol to my head. I hear a gunshot, and I woke up. I had a quick drink and eventually went back to sleep." Ben says as he finished his story.

"That's one harsh dream." David eventually says after a few moments silence.

"Yeah. And it's one I would never want to experience again." Ben replies as he takes another bite out of his sausage.

As an attempt to change the subject at hand, Ben asks "So, what are you two up to today?".

"I've got a radio shift today." David replies, harshly. He quitely remarks "Not sure why we have those. Why don't we have just a few people doing them 24/7?".

"Nobody has the time, patience or willpower to do that kind of thing." Emily sternly reminds him as she wipes her mouth clean of baked bean juice. "Shifts bring a balance to those three things. As for me, I've got a few medical courses today. What about you, Ben?"

"I don't know yet." Ben replies, I haven't been told to do anything this morning.

The three quietly finished their breakfast and tidied up the table. They turn their plates in to be washed, and began to leave the hall until Emily stops the trio.

"Ben. You know that dream you had?" she asks.

"Yes." Ben replies.

"Maybe it's a sign of the future. Like a warning." Emily continues. "You said you saw White Forest, yes?"

"I did."

"You better tell Eli about it." David advises. "Also, he would like to see you in the lab. I hear he's got some sort of job for you."

"OK. I'll head down immediately."

"I'll catch you two later!" David says cheerfully as he leaves to begin his radio shift.

Emily leans in and kisses Ben on the cheek. "I love you. See you later, OK?"

"Of course, sweetheart." Ben responds with a smile. The two head off in different directions, and once Ben has left the room, he heads off to find Eli in the lab.


	3. Chapter 2: The Briefing

**Chapter 2: Briefing**

"Are you sure he's the right person to lead this mission, Eli?" asks Judith Mossman. "I mean, what if it's a Combine trap?".

"I trust Ben very well in matters like this." Eli responds. "You saw how he excelled in all those tests we ran on him back at Black Mesa. He won't fail, I can promise you that."

"If you say so." says Mossman, doubtfully.

After a few moments silence, Eli begins "He should be here any..."

Suddenly, Ben enters the room, looking smart and fit for whatever Eli plans to give him. Ben's father was a good friend of Eli's. Since his death, there's no question that Eli saw Ben as a foster son, even though he's never mentioned it in front of him before. However, Eli too was stricken by loss at Black Mesa, having lost his wife Azian in the incident, and barley escaping alive with his daughter, Alyx, who's now an adult. Eli lost his right leg to a bullsquid while sneaking Dr. Issac Kleiner into a Combine City. It has since been replaced with a metal leg, but Eli will always remember that near fatal attack. Ben always remembers not to bring up incidents like this, believing himself that the past should stay in the past. Mossman also worked at Black Mesa along with Eli and Kleiner, but she also idolizes Gordon, even before the Black Mesa Incident.

"Ah, Ben. We were just talking about you!" says Eli, cheerfully.

"You wanted to see me?" asks Ben, curious to see what the father of the Resistance has to offer for him.

"Yeah. We need your help with something." Mossman replies. "Last week, we lost contact with the radio tower near White Forest. When we last heard them, they said that they were under attack. It's been a week now, so we don't think anyone's survived."

"Shit." Ben quietly remarks.

"Exactly." Eli continues on what Mossman has said. "If we've lost that base, our supply line could be compromised, so we need you to take a small group and see if anyone has indeed survived and hidden somewhere."

"OK." Ben just simply says, thinking that the mission shouldn't be a problem.

"Just a fair warning." Mossman quickly adds. "From what we heard, whatever attacked them was not Combine."

"Not Combine?"

"No." Eli confirms. He walks over to a small radio on a table and proceeds to turn it on. "Hear, listen to this, and you'll see."

All three listen carefully to the transmission that starts as static, which quickly escalates into gunfire and explosions. A male voice can be heard, shouting in panic, as if the situation was urgent.

"This is Outpost 14! I repeat, this is Outpost 14! If anyone can hear this, do not approach, I repeat, do not approach! We are under attack by multiple hostiles. Hostiles are not Combine, I say again, hostiles are not Combine! We'll try out best to..."

"Incoming!" a female voice screams.

"Oh crap!"

An explosion is heard, then the transmission goes back to static. Eli turns off the radio and lets out a quiet sigh.

"I guess I better get going." Ben announces.

"You leave in two hours." Eli replies.

Eli prepares to leave, but Ben's voice stops him.

"I want to tell you something, Eli."

"What is it?" Eli asks.

"I had a dream last night. A dream that after I told Miller and Dawson, they advised me to tell you."

Eli walks to the chair at the table, pulls it out and sits down.

"I'm listening."

Ben explains the dream in full detail, from when he woke up surrounded by dead bodies with White Forest burning in sight, to when the Chinese soldier pins him down to the floor and aiming a gun at his skull. When Ben had finished his story, Eli takes a few moments to take all of it in.

"That's quite a dream you had." Eli spoke at last.

"Dawson thought it could be something that happens in the future. And I'm starting to suspect these guys might have attacked Outpost 14."

"Let's wait and see, shall we?"

"Of course, Eli."

"I better go and get some stuff finished up." says Mossman, and she proceeds to walk to the small room that's next to the elevator in the lab.

"I'll leave you two to work." says Ben, and with nothing else on his mind, begins to walk to the door to prepare for the mission.

"Ben, hold up a second." Eli stops Ben, who turns round to look at him.

"Hmm?"

"I just want to say how proud I am of you, even though you're not my son. The fact that you're taking this mission without knowing the enemy is a sign in your bravery. Your parents would be very proud of you. So would Adam."

"I know, Eli." Ben simply responds.

High up in the Citadel that looms over City 17, Wallace Breen looks out over the vast vista that the towering structure offered him. Having signed Earth's surrender to the Combine during the Seven Hour War, Breen was rewarded with the role of being the planet's Administrator. Breen still answers to the Combine, like every other human, but has significant supremacy over the remains of the human population. He dreams of seeing humanity unshackled from the Combine's supression field, which has been established since the war to prevent humanity's ability to reproduce.

The door to his office opens behind him, and two white Combine Elite guards escort in a man accompanied by another man of Chinese heritage. Once Breen got a good look at the Illusive Man's blue eyes, the guards leave the room and shut the door behind him.

"The trap's been set." The Illusive Man confirms. "You think he'll fall for it?"

"He'll be ready." Breen replies.

"How can you be sure?"

"I've seen how Ben performs in combat. Hell, I've even seen how he's performed in the tests back at Black Mesa when I was it's administrator."

"Tests?" The Illusive Man asks.

"Ben was an experiment." Breen answers the question. "An experiment of creating something that almosts represents a superhuman. The experiment has resulted in Ben having a minor boost in everything, from reflexes to brute strength. He's not perfect, or unstoppable, but it's the closest we've ever got to in the evolution of man at that point."

"At Cerberus, we can enhance his abilities even more. We could make it so that he could easily outfight Commander Shepard, Samus Aran and the Master Chief. Hell, even the whole of Delta Squad won't be able to beat him. Surely with a powerful weapon like Ben, the Collective will..."

"That won't be necessary." Breen cuts off the Illusive Man in mid-sentence. "As soon as he's in custody, we'll send him to Nova Prospekt. It's a completely impenetrable prison, and VERY few people have ever escaped from it. Besides, he won't be expecting your troops at that radio station. Neither of them would."

"Very well. I also which to talk to you about what possible solutions there'll be if the Alliance ever discovered Ben or the resistance. Mr. Leng, if you'd be so wise to leave and prepare the troops?"

Kai Leng simply takes a slight bow. "It will be done, sir." He then proceeds to leave the room while Breen and the Illusive Man began discussions.


	4. Chapter 3: Ambush

**Chapter 3: Ambush**

Chapter 3: Ambush

Ben drives the jeep towards Outpost 14, which sits between White Forest and Black Mesa East. Once the jeep has stopped, Joe, Karen and Fred all got out, while Ben just sits and takes in what he's seeing.

Outpost 14 has an incredible vista, with City 17 in the distance with the Citadel towering over it. It looks deserted, with stains of blood on the walls, which indicates that it was indeed attacked, but there are no bodies to be found. Ben just imagines what could have happened here, with fellow rebels like the one on the radio being pinned down and exchanging gunfire with the oppressing forces. He couldn't think in detail about what happened after the skirmish, either if the enemy just left, or if they executed any survivors and took over the outpost for themselves. He could smell one thing though; this is probably a trap.

"Be alert, guys!" Ben orders the others. "I don't think we're alone here."

The group searches the main building first. Nobody to be seen, and everything on the room seems to remain intact. Joe heads towards the small elevator in the corner.

"Send me down." he requests.

Karen heads over and presses the button, and Joe descends to the generator room which can be seen below the main floor. Fred was ordered to keep on watch, just in case Ben is right, and that someone else exists in the area.

"What makes you think we're not alone?" Karen asks Ben, who's has his hands placed on the table in the middle.

"The transmission claims that was they were fighting was not Combine." Ben replies.

"Not Combine?"

"That's what I asked when Mossman told me." Ben continues.

"Could it be antlions?" Karen asks again.

"I doubt it. They mainly out at the coast." Ben quickly dismisses Karen's theory.

"Then what could it be?" Karen asks for the last time.

"I don't know." Ben responds. "But I have a feeling in my gut that we'll find out soon enough."

Ben then looks down into the generator room. "Anything unusual in there, Joe?"

"Nada." Joe replies. "Everything seems fine down here."

"Should we check the communications building?" Fred asks.

"Good idea." Ben agrees. "You and Karen go ahead, and I'll bring Joe back up."

Joe takes a gentle jog back to the elevator, and Ben presses the button to bring him up. The two then head towards the communications building where Karen and Fred are waiting.

"The doors won't budge!" Fred exclaims.

Ben and Joe go over to the doors, and prepare to bash through them.

"On three, give it all you got, OK?" Ben says, with a slight tone of aggression. He doesn't seem to like what he'll find in there.

"Got it." Joe simply responds.

"One."

Ben and Joe ram their shoulders into the doors. It moves slightly, but it's not enough.

"Two."

The two ram into the building again. It's starting to move, but it requires a lot more force.

"Three!"

Ben and Joe use all their strength to ram into the doors for the last time, and they blow open. Karen and Fred bring out their SMGs ready for precaution, with Fred remaining outside to stand guard. while Ben heads inside to check the radio. Joe takes a breather, having used a lot of force to break down the doors, then after a few seconds, he raises his SMG like Karen and Fred have done.

"Radio seems fine." Ben announces. "It's almost like the attackers fixed the place before leaving."

"Why would they do that?" Karen asks.

"Because my suspicions are right." Ben replies. "This is a trap."

Suddenly a gunshot is heard. The trio turn round and watch as Fred drops his SMG and falls down the the ground, lifeless. Karen rushes outside to check his pulse. She attempts a CPR, then examines his head, and sort a massive red hole, with a bullet lodged inside of it.

"He's dead." Karen remarks with a shock.

"Take cover!" Ben orders.

The remaining three rebels run outside and take cover just as the enemy opens fire on them. When the gunfire has stopped, Ben peers out of cover to get a look on the soldiers. Five of them, with white armor with strokes of yellow with red eyes on their helmets. These were the soldiers that Ben saw in his dream.

Joe peers out of cover and shoots one in the head, killing them. The Cerberus grunts were so sure that they could outsmart the rebels that they didn't even bother to put their shields up. Once the soldier that Joe killed fell to the ground dead, the remaining four put up their shields.

Karen sends a full SMG round into one of the soldiers, but the bullets were all absorbed by the kinetic barriers.

"Shit! They have shields!" she yells out to Ben and Joe.

"Fuck!" shouts Ben as he realizes they have no chance against this new found enemy. "Back to the jeep! Quickly!"

"They've blocked it off, though!" Joe quickly reminds him.

"Double fuck!" Ben shouts again!

The skirmish continued on, with the rebels exchanging gunfire with the Cerberus grunts. As two more grunts fell, one barked out "Bring in an Atlas!".

"What does he mean by that?!" shouts Joe. Then suddenly, a giant object falls from the sky and lands with a big impact. The object then transforms into what seems like a mech, with another grunt inside, who Ben quickly assumes is the pilot. The Atlas mech then brings it's right arm up and aims at Joe.

"Joe! Look out!" Karen manages to yell before the Atlas fires a rocket in Joe's direction.

"Shit!" Joe yells out and tries to move, but it was too late. The rocket hits the ground and explodes, sending him flying across the path and landing near Karen, not moving at all. Karen checks his pulse, and gets nothing. Joe is dead.

"Joe's dead, Ben!" Karen yells out to Ben. "Who the fuck are these guys?!"

"I don't know!" Ben shouts back, "But these bastards are just as bad as the Combine!"

With his rage built up, Ben lets out a scream and moves out of cover, killing the last surviving grunts, but get's pinned down by the Atlas. Karen lobs a grenade at the mech, and when it explodes, stuns it for a brief second. Ben tosses his SMG aside and runs towards the mech with his pistol in hand.

The Atlas begins to direct it's cannon at Karen, but it didn't see Ben running up and jumping onto it. With his pistol, Ben shoots the glass seperating the pilot and him. The pilot then knocks the pistol out of Ben's hand and gets into a struggle with him. Ben then lobs a grenade into the cockpit and drops down to the ground, running towards Karen as the grenade explodes. The Atlas mech starts malfunctioning and explodes into a giant fireball, with parts of it being scattered around the battlefield. Ben takes a second to catch his breath while Karen closes the eyes of Joe and Fred. Once Ben has regained his breath, Karen walks back to him.

"Is that all of them?" she asks.

"I hope so." Ben quietly replies.

Suddenly, Karen lets out a gasp as Ben's face is sprayed with blood. Looking down, she sees a sword sticking out through her torso, and with one last look at Ben, she feels the sword getting pulled, and falls to the ground, dead.

"You." Ben says with a sharp tone of anger and fear. He's now face to face with the man that he saw in his dream.

"What a shame." the man replies. "She would've made a great phantom. I take it you know who I am?"

"Yeah." Ben says. "I don't know your name, but I saw you in a dream last night."

"The name's Kai Leng. And you saw me in a dream?" Leng asks.

"I did. Now, I'm going to kill you before that dream happens for real."

"That wouldn't be wise." Leng says with a smile.

Ben could feel himself being grabbed from behind and having a sword placed under his chin.

"Hope you're ready for a trip to Nova Prospekt." Leng simply says.

This was the last thing Ben heard before being knocked out.


	5. Chapter 4: Nova Prospekt

**Chapter 4: Nova Prospekt**

Breen once again looks out at the window that gives him the towering view of City 17. The Illusive Man is then escorted in by the guards. Once the door has closed behind them, Breen turns round to look at the Illusive man. He expects some good news regarding Ben.

"Well?" Breen asks, and wait for a reply.

"The trap worked. We got him." the Illusive man replies. "Leng's currently transporting him to Nova Prospekt as we speak."

"Excellent." Breen replies with a smile.

"But I also bring some bad news."

Breen's smile then turns into a frown. "What is it?"

"We think the Alliance have discovered the local Resistance on this world.

"Shit. Has anything happened between them?" Breen asks again.

"I don't think so. Not yet, at least."

Mossman rides the elevator down to the lab to meet with Eli. Standing right next to her was Commander John Shepard, the first human Spectre, and a fabled soldier of the Alliance. Shepard is also accompanied by Samus Aran, an intergalatic bounty hunter who joined the Alilance after the Collective start stirring up trouble.

"How long has the Combine dominated your world for?" Shepard asks, as the elevator slowly descends.

"About twenty years." Mossman answers.

"Two whole decades?" says Shepard, surprised.

"Yep."

"Why resist?" Samus asks.

"For a number of reasons, but most particularly, our belief in the One Free Man, Gordon Freeman, who one day, we hope will return."

"Why?" asks Shepard.

"I'm sure Eli will tell you all about the Black Mesa incident soon enough." Mossman responds with a smile.

The elevator comes to a halt, and the doors open.

"Ah. Here we are!" says Mossman, cheerfully.

"So, you two come from the Alliance, right?" Eli asks curiously.

"Yes. My name's Commander John Shepard, and this is Samus Aran." says Shepard. "You're Eli Vance, right?"

"Indeed I am." Eli replies with a smile "And no doubt you've met Judith Mossman" he nods off to Mossman.

"Indeed we have." Shepard replies, as he and Eli shake hands.

"You've got quite a setup here." Samus compliments.

"Thanks. We've spent a lot of work bringing the spirit of Black Mesa to this lab."

"You know there's loads of space on an Alliance warship if you're desperate for more space." Shepard offers.

Eli smiles. "Thanks, but I think we'll manage." Eli then gives away a worried look on his face. He's worried about what's happened at Outpost 14. Ben hasn't reported in since he left this morning.

Samus manages to pick up on Eli's worried look. "Is there something wrong, Eli?"

"Yeah. In some sort of way."

"I'm sure Alyx is fine in City 17." Mossman assures Eli. "Especially when..."

"It's not Alyx I'm worried about." Eli quickly counters.

"Who's Alyx?" Shepard asks, with a curious look.

"My daughter." Eli replies. "She's old enough to take care of herself, though."

"What are you worried about then?" Samus asks again.

"Last week, we lost contact with one of our outposts in the Outlands. We managed to catch a transmission from them, saying that what was attacking them was not Combine. I sent Ben Walker this morning along with a small group to investigate the silence since that transmission. If we lose that outpost, it could compromise the supply line from here to White Forest, another base of ours."

"It's possible that they've all been killed." Samus regretfully says.

"No." says Eli. "I think Ben's still alive. He's one of my best men, and he almost never fails a job that I've given him. He's got remarkable talents, that boy."

"If he's not dead, then could it be possible that he was captured?" suggests Mossman.

"I hope not. Breen's got quite an eye on him, so he might want to use him for his own gain."

"Who's Breen?" asks Samus.

Eli describes Breen is the best way he could. "Dr. Wallace Breen was the administrator back at Black Mesa, where I served as a scientist, hence all the experiments around here. After an incident which ended with the obliteration of the facility, the Seven Hour War began."

"Why was it called the Seven Hour War?" asks Shepard.

Mossman helps Eli with the story. "It was a war which last precisely seven hours. Portal storms raged around the world, with Combine forces pouring through these portals. Seven hours after the first portal, Breen signed the official surrender in New York."

"The Combine rewarded him with the role of being the Administrator of the whole world." Eli continues. "He currently resides in the Citadel, which towers above City 17, one of many Combine cities that have been established after the war."

"What an interesting story." says Shepard. "Now, back to what you're saying about Ben Walker."

"Oh, right." Eli continues the discussion they had earlier. "As I've said, Breen's got a lot of interest in Ben, due to Ben being an experiment himself. It was an attempt at creating genes that match a superhuman in fiction. It worked out OK, with Ben having advanced reflexes and strength then anything we've seen before. He's not perfect, or unstoppable, but it's a start."

"Sounds like someone we could use." says Samus. "Lets work together and find out what's happened to him."

"I hope you'll have a smart plan about this." says Mossman. "Because it'll be more than likely they'll be holding him in Nova Prospekt, which is an inpenetrable prison somewhere along the coast."

"We'll think of something." says Shepard.

Weeks passed. Ben couldn't remember how long he's been in Nova Prospekt. Unlike most prisoners, Ben's been locked in a prison cell, and is guarded at all times. He's fed regulary, and has been let out for bathroom breaks from time to time. Ben knows there's no point in resisting. Many have tried escaping from Nova Prospekt, very few have escaped. Whenever Ben sleeps, he keeps having the same nightmare over and over again. Surrounded by corpses and being pinned by Kai Leng to the ground. Ben still wonders if it's not too late to prevent the nightmare from happening, but right now, he's powerless to try.

One day, however Ben wakes up to gunfire and wonders if someone's trying to escape. A few moments later, a woman with pink hair appears and knocks out the two guards outside the cell. The woman inspects the first guard, then she heads over to the second one. From the guard's corpse, she picks up the keys to the cell and unlocks the door.

"Are you Ben Walker?" she asks.

"Yes" Ben replies.

"Come with me. I'm here to get you out."

Ben considers this at first. What if it's a trap? But then he figures that since this woman has unlocked the door for him, he eventually comes to a conclusion that she's on his side. He stands up and follows her out. The woman looks younger than him, but that didn't prevent Ben from trusting her.

"Who are you?" Ben asks.

"My name's Lightning Farron, but you can just call me Lightning." she replies. "Follow me."

Ben doesn't need to be told twice about what Lightning's just said, and follows her. Suddenly, Breen's voice could be heard, but he wasn't talking to or about Ben. It was something else.

"I have been asked to say a few words to the transhuman arm of Sector Seventeen Overwatch, concerning recent successes in containing members of the resistance Science Team." Breen seems to be talking to the Combine Overwatch, and to Ben, it sounds like bad news.

"Let me say up front that I regret having to temper my heartfelt congratulations with a strong measure of disappointment. But I wouldn't be doing my duty as your Administrator if I didn't pass along the message I have received from Our Benefactors.

The capture of Eli Vance is an event of major significance, make no mistake. And while it's true that conceivably we could have taken him at almost any time in the last several years, the manner of his capture may prove to have unexpected benefits."

"Bullshit." Ben bites out. "Eli would still be at Black Mesa East."

"It's been a few weeks since you investigated that Resistance outpost, which was undoubtfuly a trap." Lightning reminds him. "A lot can happen in a few weeks."

The two continue walking as Breen continues his speech.

"It cannot have gone unnoticed by all resistance members that Doctor Vance's capture coincided with the act of giving shelter to Gordon Freeman. This might cause other resistance members to think twice before harboring Doctor Freeman."

"Again, bullshit." says Ben. "Gordon hasn't been seen in twenty years."

"He was seen in City 17 earlier today." says Lightning. "There's been a lot of talk about it among the other rebels."

Suddenly, two prison guards appear in front of them.

"Halt!" one shouts.

"Stand back." says Lightning, and with swift agility, she runs towards the guards. Both guards start shooting and Lightning jumps in the air, and swings her blade at them as she comes down. The guards fall down dead. They've had their necks sliced open due to Lightning's blade. She turns round to find Ben with his mouth open in shock.

"Look out! Behind you!" she yells. And almost instantly, her blade switches to a gun and with it, she sends a hail of bullets into the two guards that were behind Ben.

"How did you do that?!" Ben asks, still shocked at what has happened.

"I'll explain later." Lightning responds. "We need to move."

Ben follows Lightning though the prison, block after block, while Breen's speech to the Overwatch continues. Ben couldn't stop thinking about it. Has Gordon Freeman truly returned? Breen once again brings his conversation back to the subject.

"How could one man have slipped through your force's fingers time and time again? How is it possible? This is not some agent provocateur or highly trained assassin we are discussing. Gordon Freeman is a theoretical physicist who had hardly earned the distinction of his Ph.D. at the time of the Black Mesa Incident. I have good reason to believe that in the intervening years, he was in a state that precluded further development of covert skills. The man you have consistently failed to slow, let alone capture, is by all standards simply that-an ordinary man. How can you have failed to apprehend him?"

The duo turn a corner and saw Combine Elite guards with their AR-2s at the ready, preventing Lightning and Ben from escaping.

"Run!" Lightning advises. "This way!"

Ben does his best to keep up with Lightning as they run down corridors with the elite soldiers firing their rifles.

Lightning then puts her hand to her ear while running. "Shepard! This is Lightning! I've found Ben, I say, I have found Ben! Requesting a shuttle to evacuate us from Nova Prospekt as soon as possible!"

"Copy that, Lightning!" Shepard responds on the comm. "I'll be down in a shuttle in five minutes!"

"Copy that!" Lightning replies. "Lightning out!"

After following Lightning through the prison, Ben emerges out in the open for the first time in weeks, and at perfect timing, a strange vehicle appears in the sky and lands. The doors open, and Ben sees a man in black armor with the initial "N7" written in white writing. The man gives Ben covering fire and sure enough, both Ben and Lightning board the shuttle.

"Get us out of here!" The man shouts to the pilot. The door closes and the shuttle lifts off. The shuttle then speeds away from Nova Prospekt, and Ben could see it disappearing as the shuttle heads off in a opposite direction to where Ben was facing.

"Thanks for getting me out of there." Ben thanks Lightning.

"Anytime." Lightning replies with a smile.

"How did you do it? I mean, you would need at least 4 people to break someone out from that."

"Sometimes one can be enough."

Ben looks across the shuttle and sees the man smiling and sitting down.

"My name's Commander John Shepard. And you must be Ben Walker."

"I am. How did you know who I was?"

"Eli told me about you when I first met him. About how skilled you were and the situation you were in."

"I heard Eli's been captured." says Ben. "Is Black Mesa East alright?"

"That's were we going to right now." says Shepard.

Ben thinks to himself. "That doesn't sound good."


	6. Chapter 5: It Begins

**Chapter 5: It Begins**

As the shuttle lands in front of the entrance of Black Mesa East, Ben waits for the door to open and then runs out, followed by Shepard and Lightning. The entrance looked like it was blown open with some sort of explosive, and there was nobody in the room above.

The trio continues through the base and all they find is ruins and corpses littered all around. Ben searches the cafeteria in sign of Emily and David, but they were not to be seen. Finally, they searched the lab, and found no trace of Eli and Mossman. At the sign of nobody to be found at all in the base, Ben falls to his knees and takes a few deep breaths to control his emotions.

"Why?" Ben asks, tearfully. "What happened here?"

"When Gordon arrived in City 17, he assisted in using a teleportation device made by Kleiner and Eli to beam him and Alyx over here at Black Mesa East." Shepard says. "It went fine for Alyx, but it went completely wrong for Freeman, and he was forced to escape the city via the canals. I don't know why, but Breen ordered Civil Protection to initiate a man hunt for him. However, many refugees helped Freeman on his way to Black Mesa East."

"When Freeman arrived at Black Mesa East, it was all fine for about ten minutes." Lightning picks up after Shepard. "Then the Combine attacked. They must have followed him to the base in an attempt to capture him. Freeman escaped via the deserted town of Ravenholm. Alyx escaped too, but not via the same way. Many others rebels were killed and many were captured, among them were Eli and Judith Mossman."

"They were sent to Nova Prospekt, were they?" asks Ben, still on his knees, but has cheered up a bit.

"I believe they were." asks Shepard.

"How did you know all this?" Ben asks.

"We came back to the base to tell Eli that we finally have a plan to rescue you from the prison." Lightning responds. "However, like now, the place was deserted when we got here. We tried using the radio and got a response from a woman named Emily Dawson." Ben's eyes widen at the sound of Emily's name.

"She told us about everything that had happened here and why." Lighting continues. "She also heard that we were going to get you out of Nova Prospekt, and told us to tell you that she and a man named David Miller were alright and are currently residing at White Forest."

"Thank God for that!". Ben exclaims with a sign of relief. He then stands up and walks over to Eli's family portrait, which was left behind after the base was attacked. "This is Eli's family portrait, with his wife Azian, and daughter Alyx. This was taken I think sometime before the Black Mesa Incident, and it's all Eli has of his wife."

"What happened to her?" Shepard ask, curiously.

"Azian was killed in the Black Mesa Incident. Eli managed to escape with only this portrait and Alyx." Ben continues. He gives the portrait to Shepard for safe keeping. "When Eli is safe and sound again, give this to him."

"Will do." Shepard replies.

"Also, don't tell him about what I told you about this portrait, please." Ben requests.

"Of course not." Shepard responds with a smile.

"OK." says Lightning. "What now?"

"Next stop, White Forest." Shepard replies.

The Illusive Man is escorted into the room where Breen once again, looks out the large window which showcases the vista of City 17. When Breen turned round to face the Illusive Man, his face sported a worrying look.

"He escaped, didn't he."

"I'm afraid he did, but Mossman has arrived from Nova Prospekt with Eli."

"Excellent." says Breen. "But how did Ben escape?"

"Apparently, he was rescued by a woman, who was with the Alliance."

Breen just laughed. "I thought the Alliance would send something better!" He says, still laughing. "Such as the Chief, or even Delta Squad! But they sent a woman?"

"The woman's name is Lightning." The Illusive Man replies. "Like the others you've just said, she's not to be underestimated. Her weapon can actually transform from a blade to a gun whenever she wants or vice versa."

Breen stops laughing after the Illusive Man finished talking. Then his look became very serious indeed.

"We have a problem, though." Breen says, in an attempt to bring the subject back on track.

"What is it?" the Illusive Man asks.

"I think the Resistance might be starting an uprising. Civil Protection has reported a lot of unusual rebel activity ever since the incident at Nova Prospekt."

"Incident?" The Illusive Man asks.

"Freeman lead a swarm of antlions into the prison, and worked with Alyx to try and get her father out. They failed, of course, but they managed to escape."

"I see." The Illusive Man simply replies. "So, what are we going to do about this 'uprising'. Surely if the Alliance knows of this, they'll be more likely to aid the rebels."

"Exactly." Breen agrees. "I need you to have Vader and Handsome Jack get their forces ready."

"Of course. I'll notify them as soon as I can." says the Illusive Man. "What's your point, anyway?"

Breen simply replies with a short sentence; "I fear that this war has come to Earth."

The shuttle lands outside White Forest's entrance. The lookout guard raises his weapon in hand and shouts "Halt! Who are you?!"

"Let them through." a voice comes form his walkie-talkie. "They're Alliance."

The door opens and Shepard and Lightning step out.

"I apologize for that." The rebel replies. "It's a standard protocol that we..." He's stopped in mid-sentence as Ben emerges from the shuttle.

"Ben Walker?!" The rebel exclaims in shock. "You guys better come in!"

The trio walk through the gate and started walking towards the main base, with Ben leading.

"So, this is White Forest?" Lightning asks.

"Indeed it is." Ben replies. "Good setup, huh?"

"Yeah. It's all so neat and organized." Shepard compliments. "After the fall of Black Mesa, one of our own relocated to this base in order to strengthen relationships between the Alliance and the Resistance".

"I see" was all Ben could say.

As they entered the base, Shepard and Lightning are receiving strange looks from other rebels. Then a woman's voice shouts "Ben!"

"Emily!"

Emily rushes out of the crowd and runs towards Ben. He then eventually starts running towards her, and the two embrace.

"I thought you were dead!" says Emily, tearfully.

"Me too." Ben whispers.

"I didn't know Ben had a girlfriend." Lightning tells Shepard.

"Neither did I."

Then everyone hears a man clapping and saying "Well, well, well. The latest escapee from Nova Prospekt has arrived!"

"You haven't changed at all, Magnusson." Ben replies.

Dr. Arne Magnusson steps out of the crowd for all to see and walks towards Ben. "And neither have you, I see." Magnusson replies back.

"What's the current situation?" Shepard asks.

"The current situation is a disaster!" Magnusson scolds. "Eli's been captured, and Black Mesa East has been abandoned!"

"So, what do we do?" asks Lightning.

"We get Ben to perform a speech, here at White Forest." says another woman's voice. She steps out, and Samus stands next to Magnusson. "Ben is one of Eli's most trusted men, and I'm sure that with Freeman's return, morale will boost."

"I'm not really good at speeches though." Ben says deeply.

"I'm sure you'll try." Shepard says as he comforts Ben. "You know you don't have to do this if you want to."

"No. I'll do it." says Ben with a small tone of defiance in his voice. "When should I do it?"

"Now would be great." Magnusson demands. "Or should I postpone it for a short reunion?" he then teases.

"No." says Ben, sharply. "We'll do it now."


	7. Chapter 6: The Speech

**Chapter 6: The Speech**

Swarms of rebels gather around the small stand outside White Forest, where speeches and important messages are given out to the entire base. It was dark and cold, but most are eager to hear what Ben has to say. Meanwhile, inside the base, Ben prepares himself for what he's going to say to the whole of White Forest. Magnusson eventually approaches Ben once everybody's gathered outside.

"Come." says Magnusson. "It's time."

Ben follows Magnusson, along with Emily, David, Shepard, Samus and Lightning. Once the group emerges outside, it was noisy with chatter among most of the audience. Once the group arrives at the stand, Ben begins to step onto it when Emily stops him for a second.

"Remember, there's no script." she reminds him. "Do whatever you can to send the message out."

Ben steps onto the stand and claps his hands to get the attention from everyone.

"Brothers. Sisters. You're all here tonight to listen to what I'm about to say." he begins.

"Twenty years ago, our lives were changed forever by the Black Mesa Incident. Then along came the Combine, who stripped us of our freedom, and forced us to live under their dominion. Most of us were children when that happened. We're all struck by loss of family and friends, and lived in complete and utter darkness while there was no hope for salvation. But all was not lost, as our very own Eli Vance started a resistance movement against these fierce rulers!

Over the past two decades, we've struggled long and hard, fighting these ruthless aliens over control of our world. We've lost so many souls over the years, either to death or to slavery, but their sacrifices will never be forgotten. Soon enough, they won't be remembered for their choices. We all share a goal in common: Freedom."

There was a big amount of cheering amongst the crowd when Ben mentioned the goal of freedom.

"Yes! They will be remembered for their devotion to that goal!" Ben continued. "We probably wouldn't have made it this far without them."

"He's doing quite well." Lightning whispers to Shepard.

"Yes he is." Shepard replies.

"Now, we begin a new chapter in this war." Ben continues. "Eli Vance has been captured, but the One Free Man we all know as Gordon has returned! I was told that he attempted to rescue Eli along with his daughter Alyx. We don't know what's happening right now at Nova Prospekt, but I hear reports the the prison is currently being overrun by antlions, lead by Freeman himself.

With the prison in disarray, we must now play OUR part in this fight! We must now take the fight to the Combine now! We must begin the long journey to free our world from their grasp! I am not afraid of the Combine, and neither should you! So, now I ask you one question."

Ben raises his pistol into the air and yells "ARE YOU WITH ME?!"

He pulls the trigger, and as soon as the gunshot is heard, an unanimous roar of cheers is heard, as the rebels all decide to begin the Uprising.

As the cheering continues, Ben steps off the stage and back to the group, and is immediately greeted with a kiss on the lips by Emily.

"You did BRILLIANT out there!" Emily exclaims.

"Told you you could do it." Shepard says with a smile.

"Thanks." Ben says with a blush.

"What's wrong?" Lightning asks.

"I'm not sure if we truly can win this." Ben replies. "The Combine are just too powerful in my opinion. If they truly are allies with this 'Collective' that you guys are fighting, then we're already fucked."

"That's not going to happen." Samus assures him. "The Alliance will do whatever it can to help you guys win your world back. Right, Shepard?"

Samus looks to Shepard, who has his hand right up to his ear, like he's deaf, but in reality, he's actually talking to someone on the comm."

"We'll bring him up as soon as we can." says Shepard. "Shepard out."

"What seems to be the problem?" Samus asks.

Shepard turns to Ben. "You need to come with us." says Shepard. "The admiral wants to speak with you."

"Admiral?" asks Ben, confused.

"Admiral Hackett." Samus answers. "He's one of THE main leaders in the Alliance. After we told him what Eli told us about you, he seems to have utmost respect in you. From the sounds of things, it looks like he wants to meet you in person."

"What if I don't want to come?" Ben asks.

"Then that's fine." says Shepard. "We'll still assit the Resistance no matter if you choose to come or not, but it might be all the better for it if you do."

Ben takes a deep breath and comes to a decision.

"OK. I'll come with you guys." he says.

"I'll come too." Emily offers. "He could use some company."

"Me too." David offers, too.

"Of course." Shepard says. "Emily is right. It'll show Ben that even though he'll be on an Alliance ship, the Resistance will still be supporting him. When should we leave?"

"Whenever you're ready." Ben replies.

"Let me make my speech first." says Shepard. He then steps up to the stand and makes a loud whistle. The rebels then quiet down to listen.

"My name is Commander John Shepard. I represent an interstellar force called the Alliance. You all believed to be alone in this war against the Combine for twenty years now. Now, today you'll learn the truth. The Combine are the leading faction of another interstellar force called the Collective. With the discovery of your Earth, the Collective plan to assist the Combine in wiping you all out. However, we shall do the same with you, and help you free your world. Our war is now your war. Let's fight it together."

Murmurs began to utter from the rebels, with their main concern about whether or not Shepard's telling the truth, and whether or not they should trust him.

"That wasn't very convincing." says Emily as Shepard returns from the stand.

"I know." he replies. "When they see us fighting Combine soldiers though, they'll believe that we're on your side."

"Should we go?" Lightning asks.

"Here comes the shuttle right now." Shepard says as he points to a shuttle in the distance approaching. Ben, David and Emily say their goodbyes to the rebels, but also promising that they'll be back as soon as possible. The trio, along with Shepard, Lightning and Samus board the shuttle. When the door closes, Magnusson watches as the shuttle lifts off and flies into the sky.

"How do you expect either Gordon or Ben to get you out of this, Eli?" asks Breen.

"They have their own ways of performing miracles." Eli replies in a sharp tone.

"Maybe not Ben, but Freeman's the main threat here. If only he surrenders, then maybe we can be at peace together." Breen insists.

"I've seen what you and your Combine friends have been doing." Eli counters. "Even if we do come to peace, it won't last. Eventually some smart man will..."

"We have bad news." The Illusive man says as he's escorted in by guards.

"What seems to be the problem?"

"Your inside man in the Resistance has reported that they've started an uprising, thanks to Ben's charming speech." the Illusive Man announces. "He's spoken with Dr. Magnusson, and they're expected to attack City 17 within a week."

"Shit." Breen curses under his breath.

"Plus, the Empire and Hyperion aren't expected to arrive for that same period of time." the Illusive Man adds.

"So we're on our own until the rebels breach the city?"

"Yes."

Breen takes a deep breath, then turns to Eli. "I'll leave you here with this nice view. Let it be a reminder that THIS is what the Collective hope to achieve with our world. And let the following battle be a reminder to you about what your Resistance truly is." Breen remarks. He then turns to the Illusive Man. "Come with me." he says. We've got some preparations to do should we wish to win this upcoming battle."

The Illusive Man gives a brief glance at Eli with his blue eyes, then follows Breen out of the room, leaving Eli alone with the vista of a city that's soon to become a warzone.


	8. Chapter 7: The Honor

**Chapter 7: The Honor**

The shuttle lands in the busy hanger of the Normandy SR-2, which has been orbiting the Earth for the last 48 hours.

"We're here." says Shepard, as the shuttle powers down, and as the doors open. Shepard, Lightning, Samus, Ben, Emily and David all leave the shuttle. The rebels were astounded by the slick design of the hanger, and by the busyness of it. People were everywhere. Some were checking the shuttles, weaponry and armor, while others are busy away chatting to each other. Suddenly, one of them with what looks like a mohawk comes rushing over to greet them.

"Hey, Loco! How did it go?" he asks with enthusiasm.

"Everything went well, James." Shepard replies. "The rebels have started their uprising against the Combine."

"Cool."

That was all James could say before he spots Ben. "So, you must be the one that everyone's talking about right now."

"Yes, I guess." Ben replies.

"Lieutenant James Vega." says James as he extends his hand. "It's a real pleasure to meet you."

"The pleasure's all mine." Ben replies with a smile as he shakes the hand.

"You better get up there, then." says James. "The admirals will want to see you." Ben looks towards Emily, unsure about what to do next. She nods her head, and blows a kiss, giving him good luck and confidence.

"You two can stay here." Shepard says to Emily and David. "Maybe James here can fill you in on what's happening." He then looks at Ben. "Follow me."

Shepard leads Ben, Lightning and Samus towards the end of the hanger where an elevator waits. The group enter the elevator, and as the doors close, Shepard punches in a number that Ben couldn't see.

"Where are we going?" he asks.

"You'll see." says Lightning.

After a few moments, the elevator stops, and as the doors open, Ben could only see in amazement at what he's seeing. The design and shape of the Normandy CIC looked so advanced, that not even Black Mesa or Aperture Science could achieve such quality.

"Welcome aboard the Normandy, Ben." Shepard says with a smile. He then turns to Lightning and Samus. "You two can go ahead and resume your duties. I'll remain with Ben for the meeting with the admirals."

"Of course, Shepard." Samus replies.

"We'll see you around, Ben." says Lightning. As she prepares to leave, Ben stops her for a second.

"Thanks again for getting me out of that prison." says Ben.

Lightning just makes a little smile on her face, and then turns around to leave.

"Traynor?" Shepard asks a woman at the terminal. "Are the admirals available on vid comm."

"Yes, Commander." Traynor replies.

"Thanks." Shepard responds. "Come along, Ben."

"Who was that?" Ben asks as he follows Shepard into a room with a blue scanner.

"Samantha Traynor." Shepard replies. "She's our comm specialist."

"I see." Ben simply says.

As the two are scanned, they could hear a quick conversation between two women.

"Why are we even helping these rebels?" asks one. "Surely they can fight the Combine on their own if they want to."

"It could be worse." replies the other. "We might have been helping aliens for all I know that would most likely stab us in the back."

"That's enough, you two." Shepard orders.

"Sorry, Commander." they both reply.

Once they've have been scanned, Shepard and Ben pass by another room that's occupied by a table.

"This where we're meeting the admirals?" Ben asks.

"Nope." Shepard replies. "That's the conference room. It's where we would go if we have guests on board for diplomatic negotiations."

Ben continues to follow Shepard towards yet another room and examines it very carefully. Crew members are at various stations, which would have all kinds of reports, from the status of a planet, to the status of various fleets.

"This is the War Room." says Shepard as he welcomes Ben into the room. "The vid comm is over here."

The two walk towards a small room, which looks quite empty. Shepard press a few buttons on a console, however, and two men appear. Ben couldn't tell what who they are, but he could clearly see that these must be holograms of the admirals he's supposed to meet.

"Shepard!" says one. "Glad to see that things have turned out fine with the Resistance!"

"They've managed to start an uprising. I would imagine the Combine would be seeking help from the Collective right now."

"I imagine they are." says the other man. He then looks towards Ben. "How you're holding up, son?"

"I'm fine, thanks." Ben responds. "Who are you two."

"I'm Admiral David Anderson." Anderson says as he introduces himself. "And this is Admiral Steven Hackett. We're told that you're one of the finest men the Resistance has to offer."

"You could say that." Ben replies with a blush.

"There's no need to be embarrassed." Hackett assures him. "Now, down to business. As you've no doubt know already, we're part of an interstellar force called the Alliance. We've spent years fighting another interstellar force called the Collective. You might not know already, but the Combine is part of the Collective, and they've have been for a while now. They quickly escalated to become the dominant faction, and over the past 20 years, have held your Earth under their control."

"What you mean by MY Earth." Ben asks, shocked.

"We're from another Earth like yours." answers Anderson. "Right now, however, it's under siege from the Collective. And I'm right here on that Earth fighting. It's really hectic here. And believe me, it looks a lot worse than your Earth."

"I guess it must be." Ben replies with a tone of fear in his voice. "Also, you've said you were fighting the Collective for years now. Exactly how many years are we talking about?"

"About 25 years now." Hackett replies. "And all of us, even Shepard were fighting it."

"No offense then, but why aren't you all old men by now?" Ben asks.

"Around 5 years into the war, we encountered a squad of clones that came from a different galaxy to ours, and were also fighting a war of their own." Anderson begins. "We didn't know much about them, but apparently, they were given an order that they refused to carry out. So they effectively fled their commanders, and somehow managed to end up in our galaxy. They decided to join us in our war against the Collective, and somehow, their commanders were on the Collective side as the Galactic Empire. However, since they're clones, their age factor was doubled. These commandos were very well skilled, and most of the missions we sent them on were a success.

We had no idea at the time how long this war would go, and because we were afraid on losing these soldiers to old age, we immediately started researching a cure to help normalize their age factors. The research was a success about a year later, but it didn't normalize their age factor. It completely froze it. We applied it to them, but as soon as we did, the research was stolen by the Collective, who eventually used it to freeze the aging of it's leaders, including Wallace Breen, your Earth's administrator. We decided to do the same to pretty much everyone who volunteered, so that they would fight to see the end of the war, including Shepard, Samus and Lightning."

"How long were these clones fighting their war before they began fighting your war?" Ben asks.

"About three to fours years." Hackett replies. "They called their war the Clone Wars."

"I see." Ben replies. "Now, back to where we were with a question from me. How did you find us?"

"We got here by accident." Shepard replies. "We were following a signal originated from an unknown object. We never found out what it is, but what was more interesting was your world. Me and Samus went down to see if there were any inhabitants, and we saw a couple of your guys under attack from Combine soldiers. We quickly dispatched the soldiers and followed your guys back to Black Mesa East, where we met Eli and Mossman. They told us about you and the mission they sent you on, saying that you haven't reported back in a few hours. We quickly assumed you were captured, and spent several weeks figuring out how we were going to break you out of Nova Prospekt."

"Where is Eli and Mossman now?" Anderson asks.

"At the same time that you guys were trying to break me out, Black Mesa East was attacked." Ben answers. "Many were killed, while some either escaped or were captured, including Eli and Mossman. I don't know where they are now, but they've obviously in the hands of the enemy at the moment. Now, one more question. Why have you brought me here."

"We were hoping that you would join us in our fight against the Collective and..." Hackett begins.

"Woah, woah, hold on a second!" Ben quickly stops him. "First, our world gets taken over. I'm risking my life already to free it. Now you want me in a much bigger war? You must be crazy!"

"We'll help you take back your world, of course." Anderson replies. "And if you think about it, if the Collective lose control of your world, they'll most likely try and take it back. And the more people we have on our side, the better chances we have of winning this thing."

"I don't have much choice then, do I?" Ben replies in a calm tone.

"You don't have to join us, you know." Shepard assures him.

"No. I will." Ben replies. "If what you say is true, that my world won't be safe from the Collective until it's defeated, then you will need my help."

"I was hoping you would say yes." Hackett replies with a smile.

"OK." Anderson begins. "You should probably get suited up and..."

"That won't be necessary." Hackett cuts him off. "I want Ben to head into training for a week and then be sent back down there to fight. I also want him to still be recognized by the rebels."

"Just in time to assault City 17." Ben replies.

"What's that?" Anderon asks, curiously.

"Dr. Arne Magnusson said that if the Uprising goes as planned, we could be ready to enter City 17 within a week's time." Ben answers.

"Very well." Hackett responds. "We should leave you to do your training now."

"One more thing, Admiral." says Ben. "It's an honor to fight alongside you."

"No, Ben." Hackett replies. "The honor is mine. I've heard many things about you. Let's hope Eli is right about you. Hackett out." and his hologram disappears, indicating that he has disconnected from the comm.

"You should go to the Citadel." Anderson advises. "It's a place you can relax at while you do your training. It's good to have you with us, Ben. I'm sure you won't disappoint us."

"I don't plan to." Ben replies with a smile.

"Good. Anderson out." Anderson's hologram then immediately disappears from sight.

"Welcome to the Alliance, Ben." Shepard says as he extends his hand out of welcome. Ben says nothing as he shakes it.

"Let's hope I made the right choice to trust you guys." he says.

"Trust me." Shepard responds. "You did."

"Would you like me to plot a course to the Citadel, Commander?" a voice comes over speakers.

"Set the course, Joker." Shepard replies.

"Aye, aye!"

"Who was that?" Ben replies.

"Our pilot, Joker." Shepard replies. "He might be annoying sometimes, but he's sure to make you laugh if you up for that kind of stuff."

"OK, I guess." Ben replies

"Come with me." Shepard says. "I'll introduce you to the crew. We'll head down to the gun battery first. One of our guys spends most of his time down there doing calibrations..."

Hours pass. Emily and Daivd sit together as they watched the crew of the Normandy performing their duties quite like they themselves would do at Black Mesa East.

"Are you okay, Emily?" David asks.

"I'm fine." Emily replies. "It's just that one thing keeps going on in my mind."

"What's that, I wonder?" David asks again, curiously.

"I never thought that something like this would be possible." says Emily. "Allies from beyond the stars."

"I didn't think that would be possible, either." says David. "But I don't really trust these guys."

"Why not?" Emily asks.

"I don't know." David replies. I just feel that I don't belong here."

"If they thought that we were a threat, they wouldn't let us come aboard to accompany Ben." Emily reminds him. "They guys won't hurt us. I'm sure."

"I guess." David responds. "Isn't it hard to believe that these guys have been at war for 25 years?"

"It is, actually." Emily replies. "I'm surprised that nobody here hasn't aged."

Ben then comes rushing towards them with a smile. "Shepard would like you two to see something."

"What is it?" Emily asks.

"I don't know, Ben replies. "But it must be something good. Come on!"

The trio eventually met Shepard at the cockpit, where Joker and a woman are flying the ship towards the Citadel.

"ETA to the Citadel 30 seconds." replies the woman.

"You never told me about her, Shepard." says Ben as he notices the woman.

"I am the Normandy's artificial intelligence. The crew refers to me as EDI." she replies.

"If you're an AI, then why are you in a woman's body?" asks David.

"It's a long story." replies Shepard. "Anyway, look over there."

Ben, Emily and David are astounded by what they're seeing. A large space station could be seen that consists of 5 sections, all held together by a circular section in the middle.

"Is this the Citadel?" Ben asks.

"Indeed it is." Shepard replies with a smile.

Ben spends the week on the Citadel with a balance between training and hanging out with who he'll eventually fight alongside with, including the Master Chief and Delta Squad, who were the clones that Hackett and Anderson were talking about.

After the week was over, Ben was chilling out when Shepard approached him and handed over his SMG from Earth.

"Ready to go home?" Shepard asks.


	9. Chapter 8: Preparations & Revelations

**Chapter 8: Preperations & Revelations**

The SR-2 Normandy and SSV Unity arrive in orbit over Earth. A week has passed since the Uprising began. Resistance forces are reporting successes against the Combine, and fighting has just gone underway in City 17. It was time to storm the fort.

Ben walks along the corridors of the Normandy and sees that everyone's getting ready to drop into City 17 and liberate it from the Combine. As he rounds a corner, he bumps into Shepard.

"Sorry about that." Ben apologizes.

"No worries." Shepard replies with a smile. "I'm sure you're eager to return to Earth and help your rebel allies against the Combine."

"Yes, I am." Ben responds. "But I'm starting to worry about something."

"What's that?" Shepard asks.

"A few things on my mind right now." Ben starts. "If what you say is true, about the Combine being part of the Collective. Would any of their allies help in defending City 17?"

"No doubt about that." Shepard answers. "We only read Cerberus in the local area, so I think it'll be just them. We got them handled, though, so don't worry."

"OK." says Ben. "I've also been having a dream everytime I go to sleep."

"Is it the same dream?" Shepard asks.

"Yes."

"Everytime?"

"Everytime I go to sleep."

A few moments of silence is followed by Shepard asking "Why don't you tell me what it's about?"

Ben tells Shepard about the dream, from the armor he was wearing, to when he was pinned down by Kai Leng in a struggle.

"Sounds like a vision." Shepard says at last, taking Ben's story into consideration. "I've had something like that once."

"So, can you decipher it?" Ben asks.

"No." says Shepard. "But I know someone who can. Follow me."

Ben follows Shepard to an office that he's never been in before. Inside the office was a large screen and a bed. A small blue looking sphere approaches the two.

"Hello, Commander Shepard." says the sphere.

"I would like to talk to Liara, Glyph." Shepard orders.

"One moment please, Commander." Glyph responds, and heads off to the other side of the room. A few moments later, a blue skinned humanoid steps into the office, and walks towards the Shepard and Ben.

"Hello, Shepard." says Liara. She then looks in Ben's direction. "And you must be Benjamin Walker." she says with a smile.

"Just Ben, please." Ben replies.

"Ben, this is Liara T'Soni." says Shepard, as he introduces Liara. "She one of my most trusted allies in the Alliance."

"Nice to meet you." Ben replies with a smile as he shakes Liara's hand. "I wasn't expecting to meet an alien, though."

"I'm an Asari." Liara replies.

"A what?"

"The asari are currently the most powerful species in the galaxy." Shepard explains. "They were the first species to discover the Citadel, and together with the Salarians and Turians, formed the Citadel Council. They're also a mono-gender race, and can live up to 1000 years!"

"Damn!" Ben exclaims. "I wish I could live that long. How old are you exactly, Liara? If you don't mind me asking, that is."

"I'm currently 109." Liara answers.

"Wow." Ben then brings the mono-gender fact to question. "Also, what do you mean by a mono-gender race?"

"We're all female." Liara replies. "There's never been any male asari."

"That's weird." Ben replies, scratching his head.

"Indeed it is." says Shepard. "Now, back to business. Would you like to tell Liara about your dream?"

Ben recounts the whole dream again to Liara, and when he was finished, Liara too also took this into consideration.

"Sounds like a strange recurring dream." Liara replies. "Only one way to find out. I would like to try and meld with your mind."

"Melding?" Ben asks, confused.

"She wants to join your mind with her's." Shepard explains. "Asari can do that."

"Very well." Ben simply replies.

"Come closer." beckons Liara. Ben closes the distance betwen him and Liara.

"Close your eyes, and try to relax." Liara instructs. Ben does so, and Liara does the same.

"Embrace eternity!" exclaims Liara, and her eyes open again, completely black.

Ben finds himself back at White Forest, wearing the white armor and surrounded by corpses. The whole dream goes as planned. Ben kills some soldiers, who he now knew were Cerberus troops. Then he gets knocked to the ground by Kai Leng. During the struggle, Leng points a pistol at Ben's skull. A gunshot is then heard, and Ben wakes up back on the Normandy.

"Wow." Liara exclaims. "That was... quite radical. You ever told anyone about this?"

"Just Shepard and my friends Emily and David." Ben answers. "Emily says it could be something that happens in the future."

"I too think this is an event to come." says Liara, giving her opinion on the dream. "White Forest is real, no?"

"Yes." Ben replies. "It's a Resistance base in the Outlands surrounding City 17."

"I see." was all Liara could say. "Well, you haven't got the armor yet, but I'd say be ready for anything." She then starts to feel a bit dizzy but manages to hold herself up.

"Are you alright?" Ben asks.

"I'm fine." Liara replies. "It's just that the mind melding is a bit... exhausting. I'll need some time to rest."

"It's OK." says Shepard. "We're still preparing, anyway." He then turns to Ben. "Come with me." he says. "There's quite a few people who I want you to meet."

Breen once again sees the vista of City 17 from behind the windows of his office. The city was beautiful from where he stand, but it was slowly turning into a warzone. He knew that the rebels would try something like this. He believes that they're doing this to rescue Eli, and nothing else.

"Still holding hope that we'll just give up?" Eli asks.

"Oh, Eli..." Breen sighs. "I know you better than this. If only you just say the words to save all those innocent people down there in the streets."

"Well, you can dream on." Eli replies with a tone of aggression. The Illusive Man once again steps into the office.

"I take it you know that the Alliance is in orbit of the Earth?" he asks.

"Indeed I do." Breen replies. "And they will be helping the rebels, no doubt."

"If that's the case, here's what I'm proposing." says the Illusive Man. "Let Cerberus take care of the Alliance. The Combine can focus on the Resistance. Once we've driven the Alliance out of the city, we'll help you finish the rebels off." He then walks over to Eli. "This would never have happened if only you and your freedom fighters collaborated with the Combine."

"Go to hell." Eli replies harshly.

"I'm disappointed." says the Illusive Man. "This world was supposed to be perfect. Breen saved you lot in the Seven Hour War, and THIS is how you repay him?"

"He's NOT in control!" Eli shouts, his anger starting to boil over. "The Combine are!"

"Keep your temper." the Illusive Man replies calmly. "I'm just pointing out a fact."

"Enough." Breen says at last. "We'll do it your way."

"Glad you see things my way." says the Illusive Man with a smile. "I'll leave you two alone and prepare my forces." He then turns to leave the office. "Just remember this, Breen. If the rebels succed, their victory will be short lived."

"I know." says Breen.

"You're sure that with the Alliance's help, we'll beat the Combine?" Emily asks Ben. The rebel trio are in the Normandy's hanger, preparing for their return to City 17.

"I'm sure." Ben replies.

"What if they didn't help us." David then asks. "What then?"

I'll still be sure."

"When was our last big victory against the Combine, Ben?" David asks. "Huh?" Ben says nothing. "Way I see it, we'll never win this war. If it were up to me, I'd probably surrender, but you won't say the same."

"No. I wouldn't." Ben replies. "The Combine took my whole family away. I will never forgive them for that."

"I feel you." Emily replies. "I believe in you, though." Shepard approaches the trio.

"Emily, you and David will help the Resistance in the city." he says.

"What about me?" Ben replies.

"I would like you to help us with Cerberus, if necessary."

"How do you know Cerberus will assist the Combine in defending the city?" Emily asks.

"Because the Combine and Cerberus both belong in the Collective." Shepard replies. "Believe me, they will cooperate together to ensuring you guys fail."

"OK, but why me?" Ben replies.

"I've yet to see you in action. I've heard stories about you from Magnusson and Eli. They say you're one of the best in the Resistance. I would like to see for myself, and see if they're right."

"Fine." says Ben.

Shepard then turns to look at Emily and David. "A shuttle is ready to drop you two off at the outskirts of the city." he offers.

"We'll go." says Emily. "I would like Ben to come to see us off."

Shepard turns to Ben. "Go ahead." he says with a smile.

The trio walk towards the shuttle, which is prepared to transport Emily and David back to Earth.

"I guess this is goodbye, for now." says Ben.

"I guess so." David replies. He then walks to Ben and gives him a hug.

"Take care."

"You too, David."

David jumps on but Emily stays with Ben for a minute.

"I've got something to tell you..."

"What's that?" Ben asks.

"I'm... I'm..." Emily stutters, struggling to find the words. "I'm pregnant." she says at last. "And you're the father."

Ben's eyes widen at the sound of the news. During his week on the Citadel, he and Emily had sex, but he had no idea that a baby would come out from it.

"Why didn't you tell me about this?" asks Ben, still shocked.

"I only found out today." Emily starts. I started feeling a little nauseous earlier, and decided to visit that doctor. What was her name? Chakwas?"

"Yeah."

"She examined me and told me I was pregnant for a week."

"Is it a boy or a girl?" Ben asks, curious.

"Hard to tell yet." Emily replies. "But I'm hoping it's a girl."

"I see." Ben replies. "You better head on home." Emily and Ben share a kiss.

"I love you. Try to come back alive." Emily whispers, with tears running down her cheeks.

"I love you too." Ben replies. Emily hops onto the shuttle and looks at Ben as the shuttle doors close. The shuttle then lifts off, and leaves the Normandy, bound for City 17. Ben watches as the shuttle disappers into the planet below.

"Over here!" Shepard calls out to Ben. "Let's get you kitted out!"

Ben walks over to the armory where Shepard and James are at and gets out his SMG and pistol.

"There's no way you'll be able to harm them Cerberus pendejos with weapons like those, amigo." says James, examining Ben's weapons. He then turns round to grab an M-8 Avenger assault rifle and an M-3 Predator. "These would work much, much better." he says, giving the weapons to Ben. "You know how to use these, right?"

"I guess." Ben replies "But there's no magazines."

"In the past, these guns would overheat." says Shepard. "So thermal clips were introduced. "The way it works that you place a thermal clip into the weapon, then once it's overheated, you eject it and replace it with a new one."

"In other words, thermal clips ARE magazines." says James.

"I see." Ben replies. "So when do we leave?" he then asks.

"About twenty minutes." Shepard answers. "So take your time and get to know everyone."

Ben spent the next twenty minutes conversing and meeting all the various people he'll be dropping in with. Once twenty minutes have passed, the Unity started dispatching shuttles to Earth and the Normandy, and Shepard assigns everyone to different ones.

"You'll be dropping into City 17 with the Master Chief and Delta Squad." Shepard tells Ben. "You're good at following orders, right?"

"Yes" was all Ben could say.

"The Chief will be first in command and Boss will be second. Just follow what they say, and everything will be fine." says Shepard. "See you down there."

"You too." Ben replies.

Ben boards the shuttle that's occupied by the Master Chief and Delta Squad; Boss, Sev, Scorch and Fixer. Shepard boards another shuttle with Samus and Lightning. Once everyone has boarded their shuttles, the shuttles depart the Normandy and set course for City 17.

Meanwhile, Breen watches as the skies above City 17 fill with shuttles.

The battle for City 17 has begun...


	10. Chapter 9: The Plan

**Chapter 9 - The Plan**

The skies above City 17 start to darken as the Alliance shuttles start to descend for landing. From inside his shuttle, Ben looks out and sees the impact of the Uprising before his eyes. Once a clean, peaceful utopia, City 17 is now riddled with death and destruction, thanks to the actions of the One Free Man back in Nova Prospekt. A week has passed by since Gordon was last seen, and the Resistance seems to be doing well since then. Some buildings have been blown to pieces, others remain intact, while the streets are littered with bodies, both combine and rebels.

The shuttles then split up and make their way to various locations around the city, but Ben has a hunch to where his shuttle is going.

"Listen up." Commander Shepard speaks over the comm.

"What's the current situtation, Shepard?" the Master Chief asks.

"We're dropping you guys off to meet with Barney Calhoun." Shepard begins. "He's the main commander of the rebel forces in City 17. He's contacted us and says that he has a plan to break Eli Vance and Judith Mossman out of the Citadel, but he wants us to send a group to him so the Alliance understands this plan."

"Will we get to kill some Cerberus grunts?" Asks Sev, checking his rifle, clearly itching for some action.

"Yes, Sev." Shepard replies. "You will get to kill some Cerberus troopers. Maybe this will give Ben some vengeance after what they did to him. Right, Ben?"

"Indeed." Ben replies.

"What then?" asks Boss.

"Once you've talked with Barney, let us know and stand by for further instructions." Shepard continues.

"Understood."

"Shepard out." The shuttle goes silent as Shepard signs off the comm. Ben checks his weapons. The M-8 Avenger rifle and M-3 Predator pistol are unlike any weapon that he's seen before. But they are weapons. As long as he can use them, he has no problem with them.

"Was that your girlfriend back there on the Normandy?" asks Scorch, who was sitting right next to him.

"Who?"

"That lady that was with you. What was her name? Emma? Daisy? Janet?"

"Emily." Ben answers. "And yes, she is my girlfriend. Why do you ask?"

"I just think you two look cute together, that's all." Scorch replies.

Ben couldn't help but smile at the compliment, but the recent shock of Emily's pregnancy still startles him. He chooses to keep it a secret.

"She did look nice, but I don't trust that other man who came with you." says Sev.

"Who, David?" Ben asks.

"Yes. Something rubs the wrong way with him." says Sev, grimly. "I don't know why, but I just feel like he could stab us in the back or something."

"Look, Sev." Ben begins. "I've known David for years. I don't think he could be capable of betraying us like that."

"I hope you're right." says Sev.

"Just ignore him there." Scorch says to Ben. "He just wants to get off this shuttle and kill some enemies."

"No I-"

"That's enough, you two." Fixer interupts. "Let's concentrate on the task at hand."

"He's right." Chief agrees. "There will be plenty of time for conversations later." He then turns to Ben. "We've been told a lot about you. That you're a very capable man. The reason why we've actually asked you to assist us with Cerberus is that we want to see what you're really made off. You think you've got it in you?"

"I hope so, Chief." Ben replies. "I just can't wait to see Breen's face when we show up right at his doorstep." He then looks out to the window and up at the sky.

"Is everything OK?" the Chief asks.

"Yes. Everything's fine." Ben replies. "I just can't believe that Freeman could be back."

"What's the big deal about that guy, anyway?" Sev asks.

"Gordon Freeman was a scientist working at Black Mesa." Ben starts. "When an experiment went wrong, an alien race called the Xen tried to invade Earth. He stopped this invasion, all without uttering a single word. That's how badass he is."

"But it wasn't enough, right?" asks Fixer.

"No, it wasn't." Ben replies. "The Combine then attacked, and the Seven Hour War began."

"Did it last for seven hours?" asks Scorch. "If so, then that's one short war that you guys had."

"That's correct." Ben confirms. "Their technology was far more advanced than ours at the time."

"How did the war end?" Boss asks.

"Dr. Wallace Breen, who was Black Mesa's administrator, signed the official surrender in the city of New York." Ben continues. "As a reward, the Combine made him the official representative for Earth and resides in that tower up there, called the Citadel." He points to the Citadel, which towers over City 17 in all it's glory. "There's one in every Combine city, but City 17's importance in the world is because it's Breen's headquarters. But in the end' he still refers to them as 'Our Benefactors'."

"Meaning what, exactly?" asks Scorch, confused by Ben's words.

"He's the leader of Earth, but he's still under the Combine's control, like the rest of us." replies Ben.

"How long have they ruled your world?" the Chief enquires.

"About 20 years, now." Ben responds. "And we're only just fighting back now, which I say it's about damn time. I wonder what will happen to Breen exactly if we win..."

"We should try and bring him back alive." the Chief suggests. "See if he knows anything at all about the Combine and their operations."

"I would rather kill him then take him alive." Ben replies. "Because of him, thousands of lives were shattered, especially families. He claims it to make the world a safer place, but it's not."

"I'm pretty sure Breen wants a free Earth just as much as you do, Ben." says Fixer. "But the Combine are manipulating him in several ways that make him look like an enemy. It's the Combine that you need to blame, not Breen."

"I'll take those words to my mind, Fixer. Really." Ben responds.

"If Breen somehow screws up in this battle and escapes, I would bet 100 credits that the Combine will literally put him on a leash like a dog." jokes Scorch.

The others just look at him in silence. Ben does give a little chuckle at the joke, though.

"We're here!" the shuttle pilot shouts from the cockpit. The shuttle lands and the doors open.

"Let me lead." Ben insists to the Chief. "I know these guys well."

Ben leaves the shuttle first, followed by the rest of the group. The landing zone had a few crates around, while rebels are conversing, checking ammo and carrying supplies towards the main outpost. Some of the rebels give questioned looks at the Chief and Delta Squad, but one rebel came out to greet them.

"Look who it is!" the rebel exclaims with delight. "Remember me, Benjamin?" He takes off his beanie and reveals a combination of two hair styles. He had something resembling a buzz cut and a small mohawk sticking out.

"Mike Jenkins!" Ben exclaims. He walks towards Mike and proceeds to give him a bro-hug. "How's it going, mate?" he asks.

"I'm good, thanks." Mike replies. "How about you?"

"It's a long story." Ben replies. Mike then looks behind Ben and sees the Chief and the commandos. "I take it these folks are from the Alliance?"

"Yeah, I guess you could say that." Ben replies. He then proceeds to introduce Mike.

"Guys, this is Mike Jenkins." Ben begins. He then points to the others one at a time "Mike, this is the Chief, and Delta Squad; Boss, Fixer, Scorch and Sev." He then looks back to the Chief and the commandos. "I've known Mike for a long time, like David. He is a bit hyper, though, but he's a damn good driver. Oh, and he's loves blowing stuff up."

"Oh, really?" asks Scorch. "Well, Mike, I believe you and I have something in common!"

"I guess we do." Mike replies with a smile, putting his beanie back on. "Barney's been expecting you. Follow me, and I'll take you guys to him!" The group follows Mike from the landing zone to go and see Barney.

Meanwhile, Samus and Shepard, along with Garrus Vakarian, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy and James Vega are approaching another rendezvous point. Samus, in her power armor, looks out of the shuttle window and sees the war-torn city.

"This must have been a beautiful city, once..." she says. Shepard walks over to join her. "I bet it was." he says. "Wouldn't want to live here, though."

"Why?" Samus asks.

"Because of the Combine." Shepard replies. "Ben told me what happens in cities like this. He kinda described it like martial law. People got executed all the time, and there were Civil Protection officers everywhere, so there was a lot of forbidden areas."

"That's terrible!" Samus exclaims. "How did Ben knew all of that?"

"He lived in City 17, once." Shepard replies. "He didn't tell me why he left, though. Or should I say, escaped."

"I almost feel sorry for him." says Samus. "But he's lucky to have escaped."

"Yeah." Shepard simply replies. "He is." He then looks out the shuttle and thinks about what Ben told him about Gordon Freeman.

"What are you thinking about?" Samus asks.

"About Gordon Freeman."

"You think he's the one?"

"I don't know for certain. But I guess we'll find out, sooner or later."

"So, where exactly are we going?" asks James.

"Grayson Hunt, Trishka Novak and Sam Gideon uncovered intel about a Cerberus factory that was recently set up to provide Atlas mech support to the Combine in the city."

"So, we're off to secure this factory, then?" Tali asks.

"Indeed we are." Shepard confirms. "Capturing it would cut Atlas support to the city. Unfortunately there are a few mechs already in the city, but securing this factory would turn the odds in our favour."

"So it's true, then?" Garrus asks. "Cerberus is working with the Combine?"

"Both are part of the Collective." Samus replies. "So, yes, they are."

At that moment, the shuttle lands. The door opens, and Shepard leads the squad out of the shuttle. Once the shuttle has unloaded, it takes off and heads back into the sky. Suddenly, the shuttle then explodes.

"Move!" shouts Shepard. The squad manages to scramble before the debris of the shuttle crashes down onto the ground. When they've all recovered, nobody knew what happened, but Tali seemed to have the answer.

"Anti-Air turrets!" she exclaims. "Those bosh'tets are trying to keep us from landing more troops!"

Shepard curses under his breath and puts his hand to his ear. "SSV Unity, this is Commander Shepard. Do not send anymore shuttles! We've got AA guns in the city!"

"Sounds like Cerberus is doing more than giving Atlas support." Garrus comments. "We better get a move onto those turrets."

"No." says Shepard. "We hold until we get the plan from Barney."

Mike leads Ben, Chief and Delta Squad into an area that speaks itself as a Resistance outpost. Rebels were everywhere, from giving briefings and checking weaponry, to just standing around and having a chat.

"I can't believe this day has finally come!

"You and me both!"

"Sometimes, I dream about cheese."

"I'm not even going to tell you to shut up!"

"I'm glad there's no kids around to see this."

"You're talking to yourself again..."

Some rebels gave questioned looks to the group. Ben understood that these looks weren't directed at him, but at the commandos and the Chief. Ben looked across and saw a man with black cropped hair in a Civil Protection outfit stationed near a radio. The man looks across and suddenly, a huge smile appears on his face.

"Well, look who's returned from the stars!" he exclaims, walking towards the group.

"Barney Calhoun." Ben replies back. "How's the week been going?" he then says as he bro-hugs Barney.

"You wouldn't believe it, buddy!" says Barney with enthusiasm. "First Freeman shows up, the Uprising begins, and now you've returned. It's been one hell of a week!" Barney then looks towards the commandos and the soldier in green armor. "These folks from the Alliance?" he asks.

"Yep." Ben responds. "That's the Master Chief." he says as he points to the Chief. He then points to the commandos. "And these guys are Delta Squad." He then extends his hand out towards Barney while facing the group. "This is Barney Calhoun. He was a security guard back at Black Mesa before the Combine took over."

"Your outfit looks unique, compared to the others." Boss notices. "Why's that?"

"I've been working undercover with Civil Protection recently." says Barney. "But now I'm no longer part of the force, due to the Uprising." He then gestures to the area with the radio. "Follow me, I'll explain our plan."

The group follows Barney and once they've reached their stop, they surround the table that the radio was sitting on. Ben was the first to speak.

"So, what's the situation? With Eli, I mean."

"Official reports state that Eli is being held in the Citadel." Barney explains. "We're going to make a push to get him out. And hopefully give Breen what he deserves as well."

"What would you like the Alliance to do?" asks the Chief.

"I want you guys to try and take out the AA control outpost that the Combine's ally have stationed."

"You mean Cerberus?" corrects Fixer.

"Yeah, those guys." Barney replies. "You might not have noticed, but my guys have confirmed that these Cerberus folks has deployed AA turrets all over the city, using them to shoot down any of your shuttles in the sky. Securing that AA outpost will allow you to bring in more troops, and helping us liberate the city."

"Have you heard anything about Freeman and Alyx?" Ben asks. "Last time I heard about them, they were headed for Nova Prospekt to rescue Eli there."

"We haven't heard anything about them since the prison was overrun." Mike replies. "Whether they made it out or were killed, we just don't know."

"I'm gonna tell Kleiner about our plan." Barney decides. He then proceeds to turn the tuner on the radio and on the TV screen above, Dr. Isaac Kleiner appears on screen.

"Doc, come in, Are you there?" Barney asks. No answer. Barney tries again. "Hey, Doc? Are you there?"

Kleiner walks towards the screen on his end. "Yes, Barney, and I'm no longer alone. Alyx and Gordon have just arrived." He steps to the side, and Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance appear on screen, with Alyx giving a wave with a smile.

Barney lets out a sign of relief. "Man, that's good news. I almost gave you guys up for lost! We're planning to set up a staging area for attacking the Citadel."

Alyx then walks towards the middle of the screen. "Gordon and Dog can head your way." she suggests. "I want to get Dr. Kleiner somewhere safer, then I'll meet up with you."

"I'll take all the help I can get!" says Barney, accepting Alyx's suggestion.

Barney then hears a bang. He looks up and sees a headcrab shell descending to the ground. "Oh crap. INCOMING!" he yells. Everyone ducks as the shell crashes to the ground. Barney gets up and looks at the screen again. "Go on, get going!" he urges, as he turns off the radio. He then looks towards the group.

"You guys should go, too." he says in a much calmer tone. "Head for the AA controls and shut them down. That will allow your troops to move in."

"You got it." says the Chief. "Everybody follow me." The group turns to leave, but Mike stops Ben.

"I'm coming with you guys." he says with conviction.

"No, Mike." Ben replies. "You should assist Barney with the Combine. I mean, you don't even know what Cerberus is capable of."

"Bullshit." Mike snaps. "I will always have your back. This is my decision, and I'm not changing my mind."

"Let him come, Ben." says the Chief. "He might be useful." He then proceeds to radio Shepard. "Shepard, come in. Can you hear me?"

"Shepard here." says Shepard on the other end. "Go ahead."

"Barney's plan is to make a push on the Citadel and free Eli. He's also given us word that Cerberus has set up a AA outpost to shoot down all incoming Alliance shuttles."

"Funny you should mention that." Shepard replies. "Our shuttle got blown to bits after dropping us off just a few minutes ago."

"What would you like us to do?" the Chief asks.

"Do what Barney said and proceed towards the AA outpost." orders Shepard. "Shut it down anyway you can."

"Understood. Chief out." The group follows the Chief out of the outpost and onto the streets.

"Anything I should know as we head out?" Mike asks.

"One thing, and it's easy." Scorch replies. "Shoot the soldiers with the red eyes on their helmets."

"Sounds simple enough..."


	11. Chapter 10: Conflict in the Streets

**Chapter 10: Conflict in the Streets**

The group led by Commander Shepard and Samus Aran make their way through the war-torn streets of City 17. There was debris everywhere, and the ground was littered with dead bodies.

"Looks like a bloodbath." Garrus comments on the surroundings.

They come across an area with a large column in the middle, surrounded by buildings. There was a large building opposite the column that Shepard quickly assumed was the train station.

"It's hard to believe, really." he says.

"Believe what?" Samus asks.

"The fact that a week ago, the One Free Man was seen emerging from this train station." Shepard adds.

"Keelah!" Tali exclaims. She was busy looking at how the massive Citadel towers over the whole city like it was some sort of giant. "Look at the size of that building!"

"I bet that's where Breen does all his monitoring and work." Garrus suggests.

"And it's probably where Eli is." James quickly adds. "But I don't want to go all the way up there."

"The rebels are working on Eli." Shepard reminds him. "He's not our objective. The Atlas facility is."

Suddenly, Samus points out a TV screen in one of the buildings. "I can see something." she says. "Looks like a TV, and it has a man on it. I don't know what he's saying, though."

"Let's check it out." Shepard decides. The group crosses the square to the building where the TV is. Shepard orders Tali and Garrus to take both sides of the doorway, while Samus slowly opens the door. The group heads into the building, while Samus slowly closes the door behind her. They go into the room where the TV is, and surely enough, they realise who it was. It was Dr. Wallace Breen.

"This must be the pendejo that Ben was talking about." James quickly suggests. "He looks old, though."

"Well, Ben also did tell us that he was Earth's administrator for twenty years." Garrus reminds him.

The group stare at Breen's face. His mouth is moving, but no sound is coming out through the TV.

"He looks like he's talking about something." says Tali. "There's no sound, though."

Shepard sees a button on the TV. He presses it, and suddenly, the group hears Breen's voice for the first time.

"It has come to my attention that some have lately called me a collaborator, as if such a term were shameful. I ask you, what greater endeavor exists than that of collaboration?"

"What is he babbling about?" James asks.

"Quiet!" Tali snaps quietly.

"In our current unparalleled enterprise, refusal to collaborate is simply a refusal to grow-an insistence on suicide, if you will." Breen continues on the screen. "Did the lungfish refuse to breathe air? It did not. It crept forth boldly while its brethren remained in the blackest ocean abyss, with lidless eyes forever staring at the dark, ignorant and doomed despite their eternal vigilance. Would we model ourselves on the trilobite? Are all the accomplishments of humanity fated to be nothing more than a layer of broken plastic shards thinly strewn across a fossil bed, sandwiched between the Burgess shale and an eon's worth of mud?

In order to be true to our nature, and our destiny, we must aspire to greater things. We have outgrown our cradle. It is futile to cry for mother's milk, when our true sustenance awaits us among the stars. And only the universal union that small minds call 'The Combine' can carry us there."

"That's him saying that he's working with the Combine." Garrus responds.

"That's true." Samus agrees. "Come on, we got a Atlas factory to shut down." The group leaves the building as Breen's speech on collaboration concludes.

"Therefore I say, yes, I am a collaborator. We must all collaborate, willingly, eagerly, if we expect to reap the benefits of unification. And reap we shall."

Ben, Mike, the Chief and Delta Squad continue their way down the streets of City 17 as gunfire is heard in the air. Ben looks around his surroundings and thinks to himself how things have changed since he was last here ten years ago.

After the Seven Hour War, Ben and his older brother, Adam, hid in City 17 with their uncle Frank, who was a veteran in the Vietnam War. As Ben grew, he learned to take care of himself, but when Frank was killed by Civil Protection, Ben and Adam decided that it was time to leave. However, on the eve of their escape, Adam was also killed by metro cops. Ben wanted to save him, but Adam told him to run. Ben tries not to think about his family, but sometimes, he just does.

"Things have changed since I was last here." says Ben.

"Oh, no, they haven't." Mike replies "Well, until today, at least. People still got killed and people got arrested for the wrong reasons. I'm sorry to say, but it's still the S.S.D.D."

"S.S.D.D?" Scorch asks.

"Same shit, different day." Mike replies. "It's a saying in the military, since their job is pretty much the same as it's always been. The word 'shit' is actually a swear word that we use, when things go bad, but there's another meaning for it sometimes."

"And that is?" Scorch asks again, curious.

"Trust me, you don't want to know." Mike responds, immediately shutting down the conversation.

"How far until the AA towers?" Fixer asks.

"Not far." The Chief replies. "I'd say another few blocks."

Suddenly, a platoon of eight Cerberus troops appear from the street and quickly spot the approaching unit.

"There! Soldiers from the Alliance." The soldier in bulky armor barks. His armor looks different from the other troopers, so Ben quickly assumed he was their leader. "Open fire!" he then shouts, and the Cerberus troops start firing their Mattock assault rifles.

"Everyone get to cover!" Boss shouts. Within seconds, the group is split, hiding behind the walls and cars.

"Finally, time to kills some troopers!" Sev shouts, relieved that he gets to shoot some enemies.

"Yeah, likewise!" Ben replies, hiding behind the same car as Sev is. Bullets hit the covers that everyone was hiding behind, but when one of the Cerberus troopers stops firing to reload, Ben peaks out of the car, takes out his M-3 Predator, and sends a few bullets toward the trooper's helmet. All three bullets go through the helmet, and the trooper falls to the ground, dead.

"Holy shit!" Ben exclaims as he crouches back down behind cover. "I actually killed one!"

"Welcome to the war, kid." Sev replies. "There'll be a lot more of that coming from you in the future." He then rises up with his DC-17, and sends a whole magazine of bullets into another trooper. The bullets were too strong for the kinetic barriers, and thus he falls down, his body devoid of life.

Behind a wall, Mike peeks out and with his SMG, fires a few short bursts into a third trooper. Unfortunately, his bullets did nothing to weaken the kinetic shielding of the trooper.

"Shit!" Mike exclaims. He turns to the Chief and Scorch, behind the same cover as he is. "My bullets ain't doing nothing!"

"They have kinetic shielding." The Chief explains. "Your SMG and pistol won't do anything against them." Mike peaks out of cover again, and see three troopers behind one cover, with one spotting him, firing his Mattock. Mike lets out a grunt of pain as he turns back into cover. He looks to his shoulder and sees blood slowly pouring out of the hole one of the bullets made. He has been hit.

"Shit. I've been hit!" he exclaims. As he says this, Boss takes down another Cerberus trooper. That's three down, with five more to go.

"Get behind us." The Chief drags Mike behind him and turns to Scorch. "Send them a grenade."

"With pleasure, Chief." Scorch replies, with a thermal detonator in his hand. He approaches the corner of the wall with the thermal detonator ready to throw. "You might want to stand back." he says to Mike.

"Hit the dirt, everyone!" Scorch yells out to the group, and he tosses the thermal detonator at the wall behind the Cerberus troops. The grenade hits the wall and rolls under the feet of the three troopers taking cover. One of them manages to exclaim "Oh, shit!", before the grenade explodes, sending the three soldiers flying and then hitting the ground, all dead.

"Yahoo! That's three stones with one bird!" Scorch exclaims with joy. "Or is it three birds with one stone?"

"It's three birds with one stone." says Mike, who's padding his shoulder with a bandage. At this moment, Fixer kills the seventh trooper, but the last one is nowhere to be found.

Cautious, Ben moves out of cover and down the street, with his new M-8 Avenger in hand. He looks left and right, but the trooper was nowhere to be found. Suddenly, he is tackled to the ground by the centurion. The trooper tries to strangle Ben with his Mattock, but suddenly, a shot is heard, and the centurion falls down beside him, dead. Ben looks and sees the Chief with his DMR aiming towards him.

"Are you OK?" The Chief asks, lowering the rifle.

"I'm fine." Ben replies. "That was a close call. Thanks."

The Chief walks towards Ben and offers his hand. Ben takes it, knowing that he can trust the Chief as he just saved him. As the Chief helps Ben up from the ground, Fixer does the same to Mike. As the group gathers round, they take a moment to acknowledge each other.

"Is everyone OK?" Boss asks.

"I'm more than OK, Boss!" Scorch replies with enthusiasm. He turns to Sev. "Three kills already, and you're on one!"

"Hey, this battle's only just getting started!" Sev responds.

"Are you two seriously going to do this now?" Fixer asks with a sigh.

"Do they do this every time on a mission?" Ben asks Boss.

"Every time." Boss replies.

"OK, Sev. I'll make you a bet." says Scorch. "Whoever gets the most kills today gets the top bunk for a week."

"You're on." Sev answers, accepting Scorch's bet.

"Let's get a move on." says the Chief. "The AA tower's not far."

The group continues through the steets towards their objective.

Shepard's group continue their trek towards the Atlas facility. They walk across a bridge, littered with bodies and weapons. As they cross it, Tali spots a pair of tripod looking machines in the streets and a group of rebels firing SMGs and rockets towards them.

"What are they?" she asks Shepard.

"Ben told me that they're called Striders." Shepard responds. "I guess they work a bit like the Atlas mechs. He told me that regular ammo is useless, and that they can only be brought down by explosives. The main concern is that the Strider has a powerful cannon that has the power to possibly level a small building. It's supposed to be the Combine's solution to the infantry problem."

"Keelah." Tali exclaims quietly. "I don't mean to offend anyone, but it's no wonder the Combine won whatever war that they had with these guys."

"Surely the Citadel must have some sort of defense platform, should anyone tries to break in." Garrus suggests.

"I don't think anyone would've been able to infiltrate a building of that magnitude." Samus replies. "Being the key building in the city, it's bound to be well guarded."

"Hell, maybe Freeman might be the first." says James. "Sure, if the rebels believe so much in that guy, surely we can."

"We've yet to see Freeman in action, James." says Samus. "For all we know, he could just be a normal citizen." As they continue through the streets, they notice a door open from one the buildings. Suddenly, a figure in white armor came out and beckoned the group towards them. Shepard led the group to the man, and soon enough, they all make it inside the building.

"You guys took your time." says the soldier.

"Sorry, Sam." Samus replies. "We got caught up listening to one of Breen's speeches."

"I see." Sam just simply replies. "Follow me. Trishka and Grayson are in the other room." The group follows Sam through the hallways of the building and into a room, where a man and woman are sitting at the table in the center, with what looked like a map.

"You suckers are late." Grayson replies, rudely.

"That's what I said." Sam replies. "They apparently stopped to listen to one of Breen's speeches."

"That dick's speech was broadcast across the whole fucking city!" says Trishka. "Shit, we've even heard it on a screen outside."

"I didn't know this city had screens." says Garrus. "Surely the Combine has some great shows on to watch." he adds, with obvious sarcasm.

"OK. That's enough." says Shepard. "Now, what is it that you guys have for us?"

"We have some good news and bad news." says Sam. "Which do you want first?"

"The good would be nice." Tali responds.

"The good news is that there's not many mechs in the facility." Sam starts. "So destroying them and taking over the place should be a piece of cake."

"What's the bad news?" Samus asks.

"Unfortunately, those shitheads already have some mechs dispatched in the city." says Grayson. "They're sure to pose a problem once we get more people into the city."

"So, what's the plan?" Shepard asks.

"We take over the facility as normal." Sam proposes. "We just need to warn the Alliance that there are already some mechs roaming around."

"We'll be sure to warn them after we have the factory secure." Samus replies.

"OK, everyone. Let's move out." orders Shepard. The whole group then proceed to leave the building and begin their mission to seize control of the Atlas factory.


	12. Chapter 11: The AA Tower

**Chapter 11: The AA Tower**

Ben, Mike, the Chief and the commandos all make their way round the corner of the alleyway and find themselves facing a tall structure. The building had what look like turrets on the roof, and they look like they are ready to fire and shoot down the first unlucky shuttle that comes into view.

"This must be the AA tower that Shepard mentioned." said Ben.

"Follow me." says the Chief. The group all tread quietly towards the tower, and soon make it behind a metal barrier just as they spot a single trooper, guarding the entrance to the base.

"How are you doing, Mike?" Ben asks Mike, who's crouching right beside him.

"I've been worse." Mike simply replies. "I'll live."

"I hope you do. I don't want your arse to be among the death toll." Ben then turns to the Chief, who takes a quick peek above cover.

"What do we do?" he simply asks.

"We need to take that guard out." the Chief answers, telling Ben of the plan.

"I can do that." Mike offers, and gets his SMG out ready to fire. He begins to raise it, but Ben quickly stops him.

"That's no good." Ben warns him, lowering the weapon. "They have shielding."

"He might also call for backup if he spots you." Boss then adds. "You'll be gunned down within a minute."

"Exactly." says the Chief. "We need to find a way to take him out silently."

"I have an idea." Mike quickly adds. He looks down and picks up a rock on the ground. "I'll use this."

"You're going to kill a Cerberus trooper with a rock?" Scorch jokes. "This ain't exactly the age of cavemen, you know..."

"No, stupid." says Mike. "I'll throw the rock somewhere in view. He will go over and take a look and see what it is. This will allow someone to give him a nasty surprise from behind."

"I'll do it." Sev quickly offers. "Throw the rock."

"Let's hope this works..." Mike says to himself, and with that, he tosses the rock over the barrier. The rock flies in the air and lands on the ground with a loud tap. The trooper looks round to locate the sound, and then spots the rock. He goes over. At the same time, Sev brings out his vibroblade, comes out from behind the barrier and moves cautiously towards the trooper. The trooper observes the rock, unaware of the commando behind him. He shrugs it off, and turns round just in time to see Sev jam his vibroblade into his neck. The shields were unable to save him from an attack this close. Sev ejects the blade from the trooper's neck, and the trooper falls down, dead.

"Holy shit." Mike exclaims. "How the hell did he do that?"

"My squad and I have vibroblades in our gauntlets" Boss explains. "They come in handy for stealth missions."

"Let's move." the Chief orders. The group make their way towards the door. Along the way, Ben picks up the Mattock from the dead trooper and gives it to Mike.

"You'll need this." says Ben, offering the weapon.

"Thanks." Mike says happily, taking the rifle. The group makes it to the door. The Chief presses a button, but the panel on the door goes red, a clear sign that it's been locked.

"Crap!" Ben exclaims. "What now?"

The Chief spots a pedestal to the side of the door. He goes over, putting his hand to his helmet. Ben sees the Chief take out some sort of chip and insert it into the pedestal. Suddenly, to the amazement of both Ben and Mike, a small blue woman pops up.

"Can you get the door open, Cortana?" the Chief asks.

"Sure, Chief." the lady replies. "This will only take a moment."

A screen pops up, and Cortana presses a few buttons. Suddenly, the panel on the door turns green, and it opens, revealing a small corridor, with what looks like an elevator at the far end.

"You didn't tell me that you had an A.I, Chief." says Ben, a tone of curiosity in his voice.

"I guess not." the Chief simply responds. He then gestures to Cortana. "Ben, this is my A.I, Cortana. Cortana, this is Ben."

"Nice to meet you, Ben." says Cortana, sweetly. "I've heard a lot about you." A smirk crosses her face.

"Yeah, I get that a lot from you guys." Ben replies, his face red with a sort of embarassment. "I don't get why you guys think I'm so special. I've only known you lot for a week."

"Patience, Ben." Cortana simply advises. "You're not a chosen one, or anything. But when Eli first met Shepard a week ago, he told Shepard to rescue you. He considers you to be one of his finest fighters. We consider you to be an asset in our fight against the Collective."

"Well, I'll do my best to help you guys in anyway I can, then." say Ben.

"Uh, why are we just standing here talking about my friend?" Mike asks. "Shouldn't we be shutting down those turrets so that you guys can land without getting shot down?"

"Good point." says the Chief, agreeing with Mike's concerns. With that, he reaches for the pedestral as Cortana disappears. He pulls the chip out and puts it back into his helmet. "Where's the route to the control room?" he asks Cortana.

"Through that corridor, there's an elevator." Cortana replies. "That should take us to the control room."

With that, the group make their way through the hallway, littered with crates. When they reach the elevator, Boss presses the button that leads to the control room. As the doors close, the elevator begins it's ascent.

At first, all was silent. The only sound that can be heard is the whirring of the elevator as it rises up to where Cerberus is manning the guns.

"I hate elevators." Mike says, starting a conversation. "You never know if at one point, they break and leave you trapped inside. I'd rather that they have stairs." He then noticed the speed that the elevator was going at. "Not to mention that these are slow ass elevators."

"The elevators on the Citadel are slow, but they do have some nice music." Scorch replies. "Oh, and don't even get me started on Garrus. Whenever he's in a elevator, he always tries to strike up a conversation."

"He does that a lot." says Sev. "Tali hates it, though. He told me that one time, she verbally threatened him with her shotgun."

"Ouch!" Mike exclaims. "That must've stung."

"What I'm concerned about is why there was only one guard down at the front and nobody else on our way towards the elevator." says Scorch, changing the subject. "It almost feels like Cerberus has lazy security."

"Probably a trap." Ben theorises. "I've seen that a lot in my days. Show underwhelming defences to the enemy, then deceive them once they've reached their objective, resulting in mission failure."

"Or maybe they thought that they wouldn't expect any company, given how their technology overpowers ours." Mike suggests.

"Maybe we'll find out once the door..."

Before Cortana could finish, the door opens. The room was full of Cerberus troopers all pointing their rifles towards the elevator. The group rushes out the elevator as their opposition starts sending bullets towards them. Ben gets first blood by firing his Avenger as he rushes to cover. In doing so, the bullets pierce one trooper in the head, resulting in instant death.

"Well, that escalated quickly." Cortana remarks. Just that moment, another two troopers fall prey to Mike as he sends a hail of bullets flying from his Mattock.

"Hot damn! This gun packs a punch!" he exclaims with a slight laugh. "I'm keeping this!"

"Focus on shooting, rather then talking!" Fixer advises him, while shooting down another Cerberus trooper. The firefight continues, with the group advancing from cover to cover and exchanging bullets with the enemy.

"So, stuff like this is what you guys have been through during the last 25 years?" Ben asks the Chief, who was hiding behind the same cover as he was.

"Pretty much." the Chief replies. "Once you've fought in a war like this for a while, you get used to it."

Soon enough, the room was filled with dead troopers, banged up equipment and broken windows. The team makes their way towards a computer terminal in the centre of the room. The Chief then brings Cortana up on a terminal.

"Can you shut down the AA towers, Cortana?" he asks.

"Certainly, Chief." Cortana replies. "One moment." She brings up a screen and flicks through some menus.

"You sure she can shut the guns down?" Ben asks.

"Of course she can!" Scorch replies. "She's an A.I.! She can do a lot of stuff, like tinkering with computers, searching the extranet for information, and fixing toasters!"

Everyone looked at him in disbelief. Even Ben was confused at the toaster comment.

"OK. Maybe not the toaster..."

Suddenly, there was a loud noise, and a red screen popped up saying "AA Guns Offline".

"There." says Cortana. "The AA guns are down and it should now be safe for the Alliance to aid in the liberation of City 17." She disappears and the Chief re-inserts her chip into his helmet.

"We better inform Hackett." Boss suggests.

"Good idea." the Chief responds in agreement. "Come in Hackett, this is the Master Chief. Come in, please."

There was a moment of silence, until suddenly Hackett's voice chimed in. "This is Admiral Hackett, give me a sit-rep."

"The AA turrets are now offline and it should now be safe for you to start deploying troops." the Chief informs him.

"Great job." says Hackett. "Hold your position and await for further instructions."

"Affirmative. Chief out." says the Chief, ending the conversation. Suddenly, Breen's voice is once again heard outside.

"I'd like to take a moment to address you directly, Dr. Freeman. Yes. I'm talking to you, the so-called One Free Man."

"Great." Mike expresses with boredom. "Here's Mr. Administrator again..."

"I have a question for you. How could you have thrown it all away? It staggers the mind." Breen continues with his speech. "A man of science, with the ability to sway reactionary and fearful minds toward the truth, choosing instead to embark on a path of ignorance and decay. Make no mistake, Dr. Freeman. This is not a scientific revolution you have sparked...this is death and finality. "

"I hate this guy already." says Scorch. "And we haven't even met face-to-face yet.."

"Me too." Sev agrees. "Can I shoot him now?"

"You have plunged humanity into freefall." says Breen on the screen. "Even if you offered your surrender now, I cannot guarantee that Our Benefactors would accept it. At the moment, I fear they have begun to look upon even me with suspicion. So much for serving as humanity's representative. Help me win back their trust, Dr. Freeman. Surrender while you still can. Help ensure that humanity's trust in you is not misguided. Do what is right, Dr. Freeman. Serve mankind."

Meanwhile, Shepard's team have managed to seize control of the Atlas station. However, Grayson went in guns blazing, turning what was supposed to be a quick mission into a skirmish. However, some Atlas mechs have already been deployed into the city.

"Shit!" Trishka exclaims. "They've already sent some mechs into the city. The rebels are screwed without backup!" She then looks at Grayson. "This is your fucking fault."

"What?" Grayson just smiles. "I love to make an entrance!"

"Settle down you two." says Garrus. "There's plently of time for bickering later."

"Garrus is right." says Samus, agreeing with the turian. "We can still send shuttles in as soon as Chief and the commandos have disable the AA tower.

"Shepard, this is Admiral Hackett, come in." Hackett's voice was then heard on the comm.

"Shepard here." Shepard then responds. "What's the situation."

"You'll be pleased to know that the Chief and Delta Squad have disable the AA towers." Hackett begins. "We are now able to begin sending troops in the push the Combine and Cerberus out of the city."

"What would you like us to do, sir?" Shepard asks.

"Rendezvous with Barney outside the Citadel walls." Hackett orders. "We just got word that Dr. Freeman has made it over the wall and is now inside trying to free Eli and Mossman."

"Will do. Shepard out."

Outside the AA tower, Ben looks over at the Citadel. Mike walks over to join him.

"Quite a view, isn't it?" he asks.

"Yeah, you could say that." Ben replies. They look over and see the Chief and Boss in a conversation, while Sev, Scorch and Fixer stand watch. Mike looks up and sees the shuttles slowly deploying all over the city. He sighs with relief that thanks to the AA guns no longer operating, no more shuttles are being shot down in the sky. He also noticed that Ben is being quiet.

"Something on your mind?" he asks.

"Sorry." Ben replies. "It's just that for the first time in twenty years, I now see the freedom that we've been striving towards."

"I think I'm going to scout ahead." says Mike. He then begins to walk ahead.

"Don't go too far." was all Ben could say.

"Don't worry." Mike replies. "I'll be fine!". He continues in the direction that he was going.

Suddenly, an loud explosion was heard. Everyone looks up, and eventually realise the source: The Citadel. Something has happened at the very top of the tall structure.

Ben then sees a large object in the distance. It was white and yellow, and then he suddenly knew what he was looking at. Before he could react, he heard Fixer yell "Heads up! Incoming Atlas!"

The Atlas mech brought his arm cannon up, but Ben's heart started racing when he saw who it was being aimed at. The mech was moving to kill Mike.

"MIKE!" Ben yells out, and then he began rushing towards him, despite the others' efforts to stop him. The Atlas fires a round. Ben manages to push Mike out of the way, but was then propelled by the explosion that followed. The Chief comes to aid Mike as the commandos draw the attention of the big mech.

Mike had gotten up after being tackled and was suddenly over Ben. "Please don't be dead!"

"Cortana, how are his vitals?" the Chief asks.

"Hard to tell." the A.I replies. "I can say for sure that he's not dead. He didn't take the full impact, otherwise he would've been."

"What are you saying, Cortana?" Mike asks.

"He has blacked out."


	13. Chapter 12: One Week Earlier

**Chapter 12: One Week Earlier**

Ben sat on the bed in his quarters, looking out the window, seeing nothing but black space. Shepard had given him his own room on their route to the Citadel. Emily and David have their own accommodations, so Ben is also wondering what they're doing right now. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in." said Ben, accepting the visitor. The door opened, and Samus Aran stepped into the room.

"Just want to see if you're settling in." she said.

"I'm doing, OK. Thanks" Ben replied.

"I apologize if we haven't properly been acquainted." Samus said in a friendly voice. "My name is Samus Aran."

"Nice to meet you, Samus." Ben responded, also in a friendly tone. Samus then walked closer to the bed. "Mind if I have a seat?" she asks. Ben shakes his head, and she sits down.

"Could I ask a question?" Samus asks.

"Sure." says Ben.

"How did you end up in that world in the first place?" Samus was curious about Ben's origins.

"Well, it all started at Black Mesa." Ben began. "It was also where I was born."

"What happened?" Samus asks.

"One day, an experiment went wrong, and the whole facility was destroyed." Ben continued. "That's when the Combine attacked and took over. Their invasion was all over within 7 hours."

"Do you have any family still on Earth?" Samus then asks. "You don't have to answer that question if it's too sensitive for you." She was concerned that Ben might flip out. He didn't.

"No." Ben answered. "My parents died during the Black Mesa incident, and my uncle and brother were killed by Civil Protection officers in City 17."

"I share your pain." Samus replies. "I have no family, either."

"You don't?" Ben asks.

"No." Samus responds. "When I was a small child, my parents were killed during a Space Pirate invasion on my home planet. Over the years growing up, I joined the Galactic Federation, then went on to become a bounty hunter. I even exterminated a whole race of parasites one time."

"Damn!" Ben quietly exclaims. "Remind me to never piss you off..."

Samus slightly laughs. "Then this whole war began." she continued. "I joined the Alliance because I saw what the Collective does to worlds that they've conquered. They don't care if innocents are caught in the crossfire."

"Sounds like the Collective are sick people." Ben replies. "And I mean that in a bad way."

"I know you do." Samus responds.

"My turn to ask a question." says Ben. "What's this 'Citadel' that we're going to?"

"The Citadel is the heart of the galactic community." Samus answers. "It also serves as the main headquarters for the Alliance. It's a nice place to live. There's lots to do, whether it's gaming, shopping, dining and just hanging out."

"Sounds like a place where I would definitely live if I could." Ben replies with a curious tone.

"Mr. Walker, we are approaching the mass relay." a robotic sounding voice chimed in over the comm. "I suggest you hold onto something.

Ben suddenly looked confused. "What the?!" Ben calmly exclaimed. "Who's there? What is this?"

"Relax. I am the Normandy's Enhanced Defensive Intelligence." the voice replies. "However, you can call me EDI."

"She's basically an A.I." Samus explains to Ben, in attempt to eliminate the confusion.

"Very well." says Ben. "Tell me, EDI. What is a mass relay?"

"Mass relays are mass transit devices scattered throughout the galaxy, usually located within star systems." EDI explains. "They form an enormous network allowing interstellar travel. Hailed as one of the greatest achievements of the extinct Protheans, a mass relay can transport starships instantaneously to another relay within the network, allowing for journeys that would otherwise take years or even centuries with only FTL drives."

"So a bit like gateways, then?" Ben asks.

"That's exactly what they are." Samus replies. She then points outside the window. "You can see it outside." Ben peers outside the window. The mass relay stood there, a weird looking structure with a glowing blue centre surounded by rotating rings. The Normandy edges close to the relay, and Ben's heart starts to beat rapidly in anxiety.

"You'll be fine." Samus assures him. "Still, brace yourself."

The Normandy proceeds towards the mass relay and suddenly, electricity stroke the ship. Before Ben could guess what happens next, the ship is immediately shot away from the relay at a speed that people could only dream of. Few seconds later, the black abyss was replaced with purple clouds as the Normandy returns to normal speed.

"Come with me." says Samus, placing a hand on Ben's shoulder. "Shepard would want to show you something." Ben follows Samus down the corridor to the cockpit. There, they meet Shepard, Emily and David again. Two people are sitting down at the cockpit. One of them, a woman, turns round to see the two walk up.

"Nice to meet you in person, Mr. Walker." said EDI.

"You have a body?" Ben asks, surprised to see EDI as a humanoid. He then looked at Samus "You said she was an A.I. How is this possible?"

"It's complicated." Shepard replies. "In the meantime, look ahead and see something spectacular..."

It took a few moments, but when Ben saw it, his jaw dropped in amazement. He was looking at the Citadel.

The Citadel stood in the middle of space, surrounded by the purple clouds that Ben figured was a nebula. The whole thing was split into five large sections, all linked together by a small ring in the middle that contained something inside it.

Shepard looked to Ben, who was still amazed by the sight. "Impressive, isn't it?" he asked.

"I know." Ben replies, still in a shocked tone. "I've never seen anything like it!"

"Citadel Control, this is the Normandy." said the other pilot, whose name Ben soon knew to be Joker. "Requesting permission to dock."

"Normandy, this is Citadel Control." the comm replied. "You are clear for docking. Proceed to your designated docking station."

"Roger that." Joker responds. "Normandy out."

The Normandy soon enough made it's way to the docking station. Ben didn't feel any shaking as the vessel was clamped into place. He was too eager to step outside and emerge on something that he only dreamed of.

The door to the left of the cockpit opened, and Shepard, Ben, Samus, Emily and David walked towards the next door.

"Hope you're ready for this." Shepard says to the rebels.

"I am ready." Ben replies.

"Me too, Shepard" Emily responds.

"Let's have a look at this place!" David answers in excitement.

"Follow me." Shepard says with a smile.

The second door opens , and a long tunnel appears. The group walk through the tunnel, and when they emerge, they were met with an astounding atmosphere. Ben looked around him, and saw various sights, but the most interesting view was to his left, where all he could see was buildings on the surface, and the other fours sections of the Citadel above, with the nebula on the horizon.

"Ben, Emily, David." says Shepard. "Welcome to the Citadel". Suddenly, a man appears from the elevator at the other end of the dock and walks towards the group. Shepard knew who it was. It was Admiral Anderson.

"Shepard!" Anderson exclaims. "It's good to see you!"

"Good to see you too, Anderson." Shepard replies, shaking Anderson's hand in the process. Anderson then gazed over at the rebels.

"These the rebels from that other Earth?" he asks.

"Indeed we are." Ben replies. "My name is Benjamin Walker, but you can just call me Ben for short." He then gestures to Emily and David. "And these two are Emily Dawson and David Miller."

"Huh!" Anderson exclaims. "My name's David, too! Well, David Anderson to be precise." He then offers his hand out to Ben, who gladly shakes it. "What's your first impressions on the Citadel?"

"Looks really cool." Ben says happily. "I wish we had something like this at home..."

Anderson then turns to Shepard. "You need to come with me, Shepard." he says. "We have to convince the Council to help the Resistance."

"Council?" Emily asks. "What Council? I thought this was the Alliance's main base of operations."

"It is." Anderson answers. "However, the Citadel is run by the Council. They are a bunch of assholes, though..."

"Why?"

"You'll see in a few hours." Shepard replies. "Let's go." He then turns to Samus. "Samus, get these three booked into some rooms."

"Will do." Samus replies. She then turns to the three rebels. "Follow me."

It took a while for Shepard and Anderson to reach the Council meeting chamber. When they arrived, the four councillors were there, as if they were expecting them.

"We are here to discuss about the situation on the other Earth, regarding the conflict between this 'Resistance' and 'Combine', right?" said Councillor Tevos, the Asari councillor.

"Yes, we are." Anderson answers. "The rebels have been suffering under the rule of an alien species on their own planet for twenty years now. I think it's time we give them a hand."

"There's one problem with that, Admiral." says the Salarian councillor, known as Valern. "Can they be trusted?"

"What are you talking about?" Shepard asks, confused by Valern's comment.

"We have no clue on who they are." replies Sparatus, the Turian councillor. "For all we know, this could just be a trap by the Collective to lure our forces in."

"Also, even it if is true, their conflict currently poses no threat to galactic safety." Tevos adds. "We simply cannot intervene in a conflict between an unknown alien race and some bandits."

"These rebels might be useful to us, though." suggests Udina, the human councillor. "Who knows, maybe Gordon Freeman is among them!"

"Why must you always bring up this 'Freeman' during meetings like this?" Sparatus asks with a slight tone of frustration. "We don't believe in a guy like that. Hell, we don't know if he even EXISTS!"

"Which is all the very reason why we don't think sending forces is a good idea." says Valern.

The argument went on for at least another ten minutes until Tevos makes the final call.

"It's been decided that the Council will not offer assistance to the Resistance on this parallel version of Earth." she concludes. "This conflict currently shows no threat to the galaxy, plus we don't even know if they're the good guys or not. For these reasons, we cannot intervene."

"But..." Anderson starts.

"This meeting is adjourned." Tevos quickly replies, shutting down the meeting for good.

Ben looks out at the window of his Citadel apartment. His accommodations were a lot smarter and bigger than his temporary quarters on the Normandy. There was a nice comfy bed, some posh chairs and a table, and there was even a bathroom and kitchen. Another luxury was having a TV to watch. For the first time in 20 years, Ben felt like he was in paradise.

A knock on the door was heard. "Come in!" Ben called out. The door opened and Shepard walked in, looking rather disappointed.

"How did things go with the Council?" Ben asked.

"Some bad news, I'm afraid." Shepard replies. "The Council is refusing to offer your guys help back home."

"Why?" Ben asks, slightly angry, but also confused, too.

"They think that your war has no threat to the galaxy, and they don't think you guys can be trusted."

"Then what do we do?" Ben asks.

"I've talked with Anderson and Hackett." Shepard replies. "He's going to send the Normandy and the SSV Unity in to TRY and retake City 17. If we succeed, then we'll be able to stage a base of operations and try to help liberate the planet."

"And if we fail?" Ben asks.

"Then we'll find a way." Shepard replies. "There's no way that we're abandoning you."

This was not the answer that Ben was expecting. He was sure that the Alliance would abandon them if they did fail. "What shall I do in the meantime?" he asks.

"Get some rest." Shepard advises. "I'll help you train tomorrow. Try and make you a better soldier. I also want to test you. There's potential in you, but I want to see your feats for myself."

"Fair enough, Shepard." Ben responds. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"You too, soldier." says Shepard. "Good night." And with that, he walks towards the door and walked out, but not before looking back and giving an assuring smile to Ben.

With that, Ben got himself washed, changed and into bed. It took a while to get to sleep, but when he did, it would be the best night that he would ever have...


	14. Chapter 13: Back in the Present

**Chapter 13: Back in the Present**

Ben found himself in a field of green grass and yellow flowers, accompanied by the view of a clean skyline. The sky was blue and there was a calm breeze in the wind. He looks ahead and see a figure walking towards him. It was tough to see at first, but when it got closer, he recognized it. It was Emily, and beside her, was a small boy.

"Ben." was all she said. Ben just stood where he was, unable to do anything.

"Ben?" Emily said again. Even after hearing his name twice, Ben still couldn't do anything.

"Ben! Wake up!" Emily then says in a voice that slowly turned into the sound of a man. Ben knew at that point that he was dreaming. Suddenly, he felt a slap on his face.

Ben opens his eyes, and sees a blurry figure of a man to his left. "There you are!" the man said with relief. "I was starting to think you would never wake up."

"Emily?" Ben asks, still in the process of waking up.

"Don't be stupid!" the man then says in a playful tone. Ben then thought it was Mike. "Do I sound like a woman? It's me, Scorch!"

When Ben's vision cleared up, he saw Scorch squatting next to him, clearly with the intention on checking on him. "Oh, hi there." was his reply.

"Glad to see that you've recovered." says Scorch with a sigh of relief. "I was getting tired of babysitting you."

"What do you mean?" Ben asked.

Scorch proceeded to sit down next to Ben. "Well... It's a long story. There was an explosion at the tip of the Citadel, then an Atlas mech showed up. It was aiming for Mike, but you managed to tackle him down just in time. You both missed the explosion, but you were knocked unconscious."

"I remember that." Ben replies, his memory fading back. "What happened afterwards? And how long was I out?"

"I'd say you were out for about two hours." Scorch responds. "We destroyed the mech, though. The Chief carried you as we made our way to this safehouse here. It's not much, but it's better than sitting outside. When we got here, you were still out, so Boss told me to look after you while you sleep."

"I appreciate that, Scorch." says Ben. A smile crossed his face "Thanks."

"No problem." Scorch replies. Ben spent a few moments examining Scorch's armor. It was white with yellow and navy blue markings. "Your armor's cool." he says.

"Thanks for the compliment." Scorch delightfully replies. "What's with the symbol on your shoulder?"

Ben knew what Scorch was talking about. On his shoulder, there was a small yellow circle and inside it, was the yellow Lambda symbol.

"This is the mark of the Lambda Resistance." he explains. "It's the eleventh letter in the Greek alphabet, but it's primarily the mark of Gordon Freeman, the One Free Man."

"That's cool." was all Scorch could say. He then gets up and offers his hand to Ben. "Come on, let's go and see what everyone else is up to." Ben takes Scorch's hand and the two walk through the doorway and into the next room.

The main room was really busy. Shepard, Boss and the Chief were all crowded around a television set, Garrus and Sev were sitting in one corner clearly in a conversation with each other, while the others were scattered around the room doing various bits and bobs. Emily then spots Ben and Scorch wander into the room and runs towards them.

"Ben!", she exclaims. She then runs straight into Ben and the two embrace each other.

"Glad to see that you're alright." says Ben. Shepard sees the three and walks towards them. "I see he's woken up?" he asks Scorch.

"He's ready and able, Shep." Scorch replies with confidence. Shepard turns his attention to Ben. "You OK, kid?" he asks.

"I'm fine, Shepard." Ben responds "Thanks for asking." Shepard then beckons Ben towards him. "Come with me." he says. "You might want to see this." Shepard walks back to the Chief and Boss, while Ben, Scorch and Emily follow him. The Chief also had Cortana out, standing in his hand. The TV screen displayed static.

"What's going on?" Ben asks.

"Any second now." Shepard replies. "You'll see."

Suddenly, Dr. Kleiner appears on the screen, carrying a headcrab. Ben knew it was Lamarr.

"Careful, Lamarr!" Kleiner exclaims. "These lamps are quite hot!" He then proceeds to place Lamarr down on a flat surface. Samus sees Ben with the group watching TV, and then proceeds to join them, with Fixer following behind her.

Meanwhile, Kleiner faces the group, seemingly preparing for a speech. "Ahem... Is this on?" He stammers. "Yes? Very well, I... I am not much of a public speaker, but I'll... I'll do my best." He then suddenly becomes confident, knowing what he's about to say.

"Ahem... Fellow citizens... Residents of City 17 and environs... by which I mean sentient residents, of course, human and otherwise, although I believe there is little need to explain recent developments to our Vortigaunt or Alliance allies..." There was a small pause.

"I didn't know Kleiner had a pet headcrab." says Emily.

"Shush." Ben replies.

"At any rate... First, as a matter of great urgency, if you find yourself still within the confines of City 17, you are well advised to leave the city at once by the fastest means available to you." Kleiner continues. "We have restored service to much of the commuter transport system in order to carry citizens out of the city as quickly as possible. We have also established camps and triage areas in the surrounding environs. I repeat, you must evacuate the city at once."

"Why do we need to leave?" Ben asks.

"You're about to find out." Cortana replies.

"While there was certainly a great benefit in destroying the Citadel's teleport core, we have detected one rather unfortunate side effect." Kleiner continues.

"It would appear an inevitability that very soon now, the Citadel will be consumed in a destructive event whose magnitude I cannot currently estimate with any certainty, except to say that it will almost certainly irradiate an area of many miles' radius. Therefore, I repeat, evacuate City 17 at once if not sooner! I cannot state this without enough undue emphasis!

On a lighter note, if you are already in one of our designated safe zones, I feel obliged to point out that a more fortunate side-effect of the reactor's destruction is the complete removal of the Combine's reproductive suppression field.

Previously, certain protein chains important to the process of embryonic development were selectively prevented from forming. This is no longer the case. For those so inclined, now would be an excellent time for procreation. Which is to say, in layman's terms, you should give serious consideration to doing your part for the revival of the species. We must make the most of the time we have, as it is by no means certain how much time we have secured ourselves before the Combine attempt to restore their dominion, as they certainly shall."

"What does that mean?" Shepard asks.

"We can have children again." Emily answers. "I'll explain later." The group watches as Kleiner continues his speech.

"Since this is in fact the first opportunity we have had to speak openly of the baleful influence of the Combine, there is much ground to cover—and in fact I hope to institute a series of useful bulletins in the days ahead. In short, the Combine are completely cut off. Combine forces currently stationed on Earth are now isolated units. Stranded.

However, this is most likely a temporary state of affairs. As we once learned to our dismay, even the relatively tiny fracture at Black Mesa gave our enemies an opening which they were able to force ever wider, as they poured through in greater and greater numbers.

In addition to the completely xenotheric species, there are many modified post-human allies still remaining on Earth who will be doing their utmost to re-establish lines of communication and supply with the larger forces.

Even so, there is greater reason for hope now than at any time in the past decade. We have made, in secret, several technological advances which we will do our best to deploy in advance of the Combine's return. We continue to diligently assemble and train a new generation of scientists and technicians.

For what the Combine fear the most is not any tangible human weapon, but our will, our intellect, our ability to respond selectively and rationally to every terror they turn against us.

We place our firmest hope in the human spirit, even knowing how easily it may be shattered. We have all seen friends and family crushed by the Combine. Some of our neighbors have allowed themselves to be co-opted, and purged of their humanity, by the military machine. And those who resisted have met a most terrible fate.

Still, I cannot overstate how important it is that we retain our humanity. Only this will allow us to hold together as we must for their inevitable return...and what is certain to be unimaginable retaliation.

And...oh yes, if you missed any part of this message, it will loop repeatedly until there is no point in looping it any longer.

I apologize for any inadvertent errors or omissions. As you can imagine, we have had scarcely time to record, let alone rehearse-" He then pauses in mid sentence and turns to his left.

"What's that, Eli?" he asks "Oh, right." He then turns back to facing the camera, intending to finish his speech.

"This has been Dr. Isaac Kleiner, formerly of Black Mesa, now simply a citizen, like all of you, of Earth. Let me just add to all those who can hear me now, as we struggle out of the shadow of our malefactors, welcome back to the light. "

There was a moment of silence.

"Now...where did I put that calculator?" Kleiner asks himself. He then wonders off screen and the TV returns to static.

"Wow." says Ben. So let me get this straight. The Citadel is going to explode?"

"That's 100% correct." Cortana confirms. "In less than two hours, City 17 will be nothing but rubble."

"So much for liberating the city..." Emily says quietly.

"We have to get as many people as we can to the train station." says Shepard. "That's where Barney told me they were heading."

Ben quickly looks round the room, scanning for Mike, but he was nowhere to be seen. "Where's Mike?" Ben asks.

"He went with Trishka and Grayson to help evacuate citizens already." the Chief answers. "He was keen to get as many people as he can to safety. Emily stayed behind to ensure that you're OK."

"I'll head out then." says Ben. "If I see anyone, I'll escort them to the trains. I want to save as many lives as I can, too."

"Are you crazy?!" Emily asks, shocked. "That's suicide!"

"You're not going out there alone if you're that desperate." says Boss. I'll send Scorch with you. You two seem to be getting on well enough anyway." He then looks towards Scorch. "You're OK going with him?"

"Sure thing, Boss." Scorch answers.

"Just be warned." says Shepard. "Hackett told me that Cerberus has pulled out of City 17 completely, but there's still a moderate chance of Combine presence in the city."

"We'll be fine, Shepard." Ben replies. Grabbing an M-8 Avenger rifle, he says "I know how to take down a Civil Protection patrol or two."

Emily puts her hand on Ben. "Be careful." she says. "I don't want to lose you."

"I'll be back, Emily." Ben replies "I promise."

"Can I give you some advice, Ben?" Cortana asks. Ben nods his head, wanting to hear from the A.I. "Don't make a girl a promise if you know you can't keep it." She then vanishes back into the chip sitting in the Chief's palm. Ben says nothing, taking Cortana's words to his brain. He looks to Scorch. "Let's go." he says.

"I've got your back, Ben." Scorch replies.

"Good luck you two." says Shepard. "And be careful." With that, Ben and Scorch leave the building. Shepard then turns his attention to everyone else.

"Alright folks, listen up!" Shepard begins. "Our objective now is to escort any remaining citizens to the safety of the train station before the Citadel explodes." He looks to Boss. "Boss, you, Fixer, Sev, Samus and Emily head out and look for any survivors. If you see anyone, lead them to the train station."

"Understood." Boss replies. Shepard then looks to Tali, James, Garrus and Sam.

"The rest of you will come with me and the Chief. Same objective applies." The others nod their heads, also understanding Shepard's orders.

"OK everyone." says Shepard. "Let's move out."

Meanwhile, in an unknown region of space, the Illusive Man looks out at an enormous sun. He takes a smoke from his cigarette and suddenly, Kai Leng appears on the screen.

"Are all our forces out of City 17?" he asks.

"Yes, sir." Kai Leng replies. "But there's still Alliance and Resistance forces in the city."

"I see." says The Illusive Man. "How's Breen?"

"He's fine." was Kai Leng's response "He's out cold, but fine. Luckily we had people who were there to stabilize his condition. Not many people could survive a fall like that."

"Good." says the Illusive Man. "Those rebels are starting to become a problem. I see an opportunity arise just now."

"And what is that, sir?" Kai Leng asks. He was curious to hear more.

"We need the location of their main base of operations. Mr. Walker can help with that. Thanks to a source, I hear that he's still in the city, with one of the Republic Commandos attached to him. Capture them both."

"Yes, sir." says Kai Leng, accepting the mission. "I'll try and get them to turn themselves in."

"Very well, Mr. Leng." The Illusive Man says. "Don't fail me."


	15. Chapter 14: Evacuations

**Chapter 14: Evacuations**

Shepard's team continues to trek through the ruined streets of City 17. There was destruction everywhere; windows were smashed, the air felt cold and debris was scattered all over the place. Shepard was sure that shortly, it will be nothing but a wasteland. The Resistance and Alliance have only 90 minutes to pull out of the city before the Citadel explodes and wipes it off the map. Permanently.

"Bet this used to be a nice place." James commented. "To see it like this, it's... horrifying."

"I couldn't agree more." Shepard replies. "However, when the Combine are off this world forever, the Resistance will have a chance to rebuild and start over."

"Nobody's safe from the Collective, Shepard." says Tali. "You know that, right?"

"I know, Tali." Shepard responds. "Hopefully we'll be able to..."

Suddenly, they hear a woman cry for help. The group scanned the area, searching for the source of the voice. Garrus spots two figures near one of the ruined buildings. One of them was waving at them.

"Over there, Commander." he tells Shepard, pointing to the figures.

"Follow me." Shepard orders. "Let's see if we can help them out." The group rushes their way to the figures. Once they got closer, they saw that it was two rebels, one a woman, the other a man. The woman was kneeling over the man, who's leg is trapped under some debris.

"Thank God you came!" says the woman quickly with relief. "I thought that I was going to have to leave him behind and..."

"Slow down." says Shepard. "Take a deep breath and tell us what happened." The woman did as Shepard said.

"We were setting up an ambush for a Civil Protection patrol about 3 hours ago." she said, after taking a deep breath. "All went well until they brought in the striders. One took a shot at the building. We rushed down the stairs to ground level, but just as we made it outside, some debris fell on Martin's leg here. We managed to conceal ourselves until you guys came along. Now I'm hoping you'll be able to get Martin back on his feet, so that we'll be able to make it to the train station."

"What's your name?" Shepard asks.

"Katie." she replies.

"Don't worry, Katie." Shepard assures her. "We'll get Martin out of this in no time." He then signals to Sam the Chief. "Help him."

"Yes, sir." the Chief answers.

"Right away, sir." Sam replies.

The Chief and Sam grab both ends of the block of concrete that was trapping Martin's leg, and with little effort, managed to pull it off, freeing Martin.

"Thank you so much." says Martin, embracing Katie as he stood up. "I didn't think I was going to make it out of that."

"No problem." Shepard replies. "Your leg looks to be in bad shape though. Luckily, we have orders to escort anyone we find to the train station. We'll take you there." Katie's eye lit up with joy.

"We'll never forget you." she says. "You saved our lives."

"Shepard, come in." Samus' voice suddenly chimes in on the com. "Shepard, do you read? This is Samus"

"This is Shepard." Shepard answers. "Go ahead, Samus."

"Our group has come across a rebel safehouse." says Samus. "They want us to come inside, saying that Barney's there."

"Go with them, Samus." says Shepard. "If Barney has a plan for when they reach the trains, then I want to hear it ASAP. Is that clear?"

"Roger that, Shepard." Samus replies, fully understanding the order. "Samus out."

Shepard then turns towards the group. "Let's move. We have a train to catch."

"What's the password?" the female rebel on the other side asks.

"We don't have a password!" the male citizen snaps back, clearly frustrated. "Please let these people in!"

"Fine." the woman replies in a bored tone, clearly disappointed. "You never let me have fun. Come on in."

Samus, Emily, Boss, Fixer and Sev make their way through the doorway and into the safehouse. The first room was occupied by a couple of rebels. Before they could get acquainted with anyone, the rebel who escorted them to the outpost took their attention to the doorway on the far side of the room.

"Barney's waiting for you upstairs." he says. Suddenly, gunfire is heard. "I better go." he says. "Sounds like more folks need help." With that, he rushes out the way they came from, with the female rebel shutting the door behind him. The group make their way across the room, past the TV that was repeating Kleiner's message, up the stairs and through the hallway until they came up towards a metal door.

"I'll take this." Boss says to Samus. "If Barney answers that, he won't recognize you." With that, Boss proceeds to knock on the door. The slot on the door slides to reveal Barney's face. He smiles, and opens the door.

"Fancy seeing you guys again!" he says. "One of the guards spotted you and informed me."

"Thanks for that." answers Samus. The group makes their way into the apartment that served as Barney's staging area. A couple of rebels were stationed at the windows, while a group was sat down looking at a map. 

"Wait a minute." Barney says to Boss, noticing Scorch's absence. "I thought there was four of you guys?"

"Scorch has gone with Ben to help find survivors and lead them to the train station." Boss answers. "They'll be fine."

"You guys are headed to the train station, too?" Barney asks.

"We have orders to escort anyone we find there." Fixer replies. "We were told they you're heading there, too."

"We are." Barney responds. "Not sure how we'll get there, but..." Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. "Hold on." Barney says. "I'll get that."

"I wonder who it'll be this time?" Sev asks as Barney makes his way to the door.

"We'll find out in a second." Samus answers as she watches Barney slide the slot open again.

"Alyx?!" Barney asks in a shocked tone. "Gordon?! I don't believe it!" He quickly slides the slot shut again and immediately opens the door. There, stands Alyx and a bearded man wearing glasses and an orange suit.

"How the hell'd you get out of the Citadel?" was Barney's first question.

"We're...not exactly sure." was Alyx's response. "All we know is that the Vortigaunts had something to do with it."

Sev wasn't paying attention to the small reunion. His attention was towards the bearded man. "So THAT'S the Gordon Freeman that pretty much everyone here's talking about." he whispered to Samus.

"Quiet." says Samus. "We should listen to what Barney's talking about."

"But what about you, Barney?" Alyx asks, clearly trying to change the subject.

"Well, I'm doin' okay." Barney replies. "Just going crazy tryin' to..."

Suddenly, a rebel at the window cries out "They found us!". The group looks across to see a floating object rise up the window and emits a small flash. The rebel draws out his shotgun and shoots it down as quickly as possible.

"What was that?" Fixer asks, curious to what he just saw.

"It's a Combine scanner." Emily replies. "They're like scouts. They know we're here now."

Barney looks towards Gordon, looking a little pissed. "Aw, hell, Gordon! Were you followed again?!" Gordon didn't say anything.

"We stole some information from the Citadel on our way out." Alyx explains. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a little device. " I don't know what it is yet, but it's important enough that they've been hounding us the whole way here."

Barney takes a second to consider this. "Well, that puts the pressure on – look, we gotta get moving." he eventually said. "You guys know about the evacuation trains, right?"

"Yeah." was Alyx's short, but sweet reply.

"Well we've been planning to make a push on the train station." Barney explains. "Just like these guys here." he points to Samus and Delta Squad. "Now it looks like we're gonna have to cut a path through every chickenshit metro cop who's having second thoughts about defending City 17." At that moment, an idea pops in Alyx's head.

"If Gordon and I took a separate route, we could draw the Combine away from you." she suggests. "That'd give you a chance to get the trains filled up before we get there."

"Really?" Barney asks. "Well, if you say so." A moment of silence passed by. Barney then walks towards the open wall in the room. "Now. Here, look over here." he says to Alyx and Gordon, who follow him. They arrive at a raised bridge with a crowbar nudged in the wheel.

"OK, cross this bridge, over the rooftops is a safe path to the station." Barney explains. He then proceeds to yank the crowbar from the wheel, letting the bridge fall back down to place itself between the safehouse and the opposite building.

"You two head that way." he suggests. "I'll hit the streets and round up everyone who's been waiting. We'll meet you there."

"Sounds good." Alyx replies. She then looks to Gordon. "Let's go." She then proceeds to walk across the bridge. Before Gordon could cross, Barney blocks his way. Gordon did not object.

"Hey, Gordon, before you go." says Barney. He then holds up the crowbar that he nudged from the wheel a moment ago. "I was getting tired of carrying this around. Listen, I don't have many more of these so try not to lose this one, OK?" he smiles as he tosses the crowbar over to Gordon, who grabs it. Barney they moves to the side allowing Gordon to cross.

"Go on across, Gordon. She's waiting for ya!" Barney says to Gordon. "You lucky dog, you!" Gordon didn't respond to Barney's comment, and simply walked across the bridge to the other side where Alyx ways waiting.

"See you at the station!" Barney called out. And with that, Alyx and Gordon began their route to the train station.

"All Alliance forces in City 17, come in." Hackett's voice comes in on Samus' com device. "Shuttles are being deployed to evacuate you all back onto the SSV Unity and Normandy. The Citadel's core has somehow advanced to a critical stage of meltdown. We are estimating that at least 30 minutes are left until detonation. If any of you have civilians with you, direct them to the train station ASAP. Once those shuttles are on the ground, make your way to the nearest extraction point. Good luck. Hackett out."

"Did you get that?" Fixer asks Samus and Boss.

"We did." Samus replies. She turns to Barney "We better get going. We've been ordered to pull out of the city."

"Very well." Barney replies. "I hope we get back in touch soon."

"We will." Boss assures him. "Let's go." The group walks back to the door they came from, but Emily stood where she was.

"I'm staying." she says.

"Are you sure?" Samus asks.

"I'm sure." Emily replies. "These are my people. They need me, so I'll try and get them out of the city as soon as possible. Tell Ben to meet me at White Forest. That's where I plan to go once we're out."

"We will, Emily." Fixer assures her. "Don't worry. I'll tell him myself."

"Thanks, Fixer." says Emily, smiling. She looks back to Samus. "Good luck."

"You too, Emily." Samus replies. With their goodbyes said, Samus and Delta Squad leave the room to head for their extraction point.

Meanwhile, Shepard's group are escorting Martin and Katie to the train station. They've walked for about twenty minutes now. Shepard is starting to worry. That leaves twenty minutes until the Citadel explodes.

"Are we there, yet?" Martin asks.

"Not yet." Shepard answers. Suddenly, the group hear a loud roar from behind. They look above and see a tripod looking machine towering above them.

"That's a Strider!" Katie shouts out. A blue pulse emerges from a cannon underneath the the top of the strider.

"Take cover!" Shepard yells to everyone. The strider unleashes a cannon like shot and blows everyone off their feet. They scramble to cover just in time before the strider fires it's main weapon upon the group.

Shepard looks to Katie and Martin. "Both of you need to run. Head for the train station. We'll take care of this."

"No, you won't!" Katie says in a panic. "You need explosives to take that thing down."

"We'll be fine." Shepard assures her. "Just go! Run!"

"We'll never forget you!" says Katie. With that, she wraps Martin's arm over her shoulder and begun their dash towards the train station. Shepard watches as Garrus, Tali, Chief, Sam and James continue firing their rifles at the strider. None of the bullets made a dent.

"It's no use!" Shepard shouts out. "We need explosives to take that thing out!" The strider then spots Katie and Martin and prepares to fire it's cannon again.

"NO!" Shepard yells out. Suddenly, an explosion from behind knocks the strider down a bit. It maintains it's balance but by that time, the rebels were out of sight. It continues firing it's main weapon on Shepard's squad, but is once again knocked down by an explosion. A few more explosions followed and the strider eventually fell. It collapsed towards the ground, throwing dust up in the air. The group make their way out of cover.

Tali spots a figure coming towards them. "Look out, Shepard!" she warns him. The group aim their weapons towards the figure that's walking towards them.

"Hold fire." Shepard replies in a calm tone. Once the figure became visible, everyone holsters their weapons. It was Scorch. His DC-17 had an anti-armor attachment on, which shows that he took down the strider from behind.

"Seems like quite an entrance you made there." James commented.

"Save it." Scorch quickly says in a harsh tone.

"Are you OK?" Shepard asks. He looks around, but doesn't see Ben in sight. "Where's Ben?"

Scorch took a deep breath, trying to find the right words. After a few moments of silence, he said them in a calmer voice. "Ben has been captured."

A moment of silence sprang into the air, until Shepard broke it with a question. "What happened?"

"I'll give you a name." Scorch replies. "Kai Leng."


	16. Chapter 15: Ten Minutes Earlier

**Chapter 15: Ten Minutes Earlier**

Ben's sight were focused up at the Citadel as he and Scorch progressed through the war-torn streets. Structure wise, it looked fine, but the top was almost completely destroyed, probably from the explosion earlier. Above the building though, a small orange-like portal was swirling above. That sight, along with the dark skies and ruined buildings, made it look like a nightmare. Ben felt like he had died and gone to hell.

"This is just horrifying." Ben admits. "I'd never expected it to come to this."

"Yeah, I agree." Scorch replies. "But I bet you never liked this city at all."

"You're right." says Ben. "I don't. They pass a screen where Kleiner's message is once again heard. Scorch wondered if Ben and Kleiner were at least acquainted. He decided to try.

"So. Do you know him?" he asks.

"Who?" Ben didn't understand who Scorch was talking about until he pointed at the screen.

"Dr. Kleiner. The dude who's on TV."

"Yeah." Ben answered. "He and I go way back. Same goes for Eli. We were all there at Black Mesa that day. The day when everything pretty much went to shit. Hard to believe that they almost died at one point."

"What happened?" Scorch asked, curious to know.

"Well..." Ben trotted off, trying to piece his memory together. "Some say that it happened at Black Mesa, but all I know is after the Seven Hour War, Eli was trying to smuggle Kleiner into a Combine city one time. It worked, but a bullsquid attacked them and tore Eli's left leg off. He now has a prosthetic leg as a replacement." Ben let out a sigh. "If you see Eli, don't tell him that I told you this. It's still traumatic for him."

"Of course not." Scorch replied. "I understand." Suddenly, Ben raced off. Scorch tried to see what Ben was running to, and saw a rebel lying on the street. He followed.

When Ben arrived at the scene, the rebel laid on the ground, not moving at all. He put down his M-8 Avenger, crouched down and placed a hand on the rebel's neck, looking for a pulse. He didn't feel one. He felt a heavy weight on him as he took in the fact that the rebel was dead.

"Well?" Scorch asked from behind him, who had caught up.

"No pulse." Ben replied. "He's dead. I thought he would be alive." Suddenly, the pair hear a loud thumping sound, growing louder every time they hear it. Ben knew what was coming.

"We have to hide." he says quickly.

"Why?" Scorch asked. He thought that there wouldn't be any trouble.

"Trust me." Ben replies. "It's a Strider. Going up against one is dangerous." He spots a small alleyway and the two dashed towards it. They pressed their backs against the wall as they see the strider move along the street.

"Just some advice." Ben says as the strider passes. "If we face one, we need to use explosives. Regular firepower won't work against their armor." Hearing this, Scorch takes out an anti-armor attachment and attaches it to his DC-17.

"Explosives is my speciality!" he says with enthusiasm.

Ben smiled. "Let's go." he says, and the two continued their search for survivors. They eventually come across a large space. There was a stairway in the center of the area which Ben knew that it led into the subway, and beside it was a car park.

"Nobody here." he says. Suddenly, Hackett's message is heard on the comm.

"Did you hear that?" Scorch asks.

"I did." Ben replies. "We better meet up at the train station." Suddenly a shuttle it seen heading towards them. "Well, they're picking us up early." he says. Scorch saw the Cerberus symbol on the shuttle, however.

"It's not the Alliance." he warns Ben. "It's Cerberus." With that, the two aim their weapons towards the approaching craft. As it touches down, the door opens, and three people stepped out. In the center was Kai Leng, whose presence made Ben want to unload a full magazine into him. On both sides of Kai Leng, stood two centurions.

"Hello there." says Kai Leng.

"You again." says Ben in a harsh tone. "What do you want?"

"I'm surprised that you escaped from that Combine prison." Kai Leng responds. "If it were up to me, I would fight you here right now. But my boss says otherwise."

"Oh yeah? And what's that?" Scorch asks, clearly getting pissed at this sudden meeting.

"He wants both of you to turn yourselves in." Kai Leng simply admits. He wanted to get this whole thing over as quickly as possible, hoping the two would co-operate.

"Well, tell him we said no thanks!" Ben shouts back. "Being captured once was enough for me."

"If you don't comply..." Kai Leng starts. He thought about how he could get them to surrender. He then though of something. "...we'll destroy the trains that your so-called 'resistance' plan to escape on."

"Let me think about that." was Ben's reply. Scorch quickly faced him. He was shocked by what Ben had said, that he was considering letting them both get captured.

"You seriously can't believe this di'kut!" he says. "He's bluffing. I know it!"

"What if he's not?" Ben replies in a calm tone. "What if they do plan to destroy the trains? That's a chance that I won't take."

"But..." Scorch begins, but Ben raises his hand for him to stop.

"We don't have a choice." says Ben. "I'm sorry."

"Last chance." Kai Leng calls out. He was getting impatient. "What's it going to be?" A moment of silence passed by, the only sound being the howling wind.

"I'll go with you." Ben says at last, breaking the silence. He tosses his M-8 Avenger to the ground and raises his hands. "On one condition though." He points to Scorch. "You let him go."

"You know I can't do that." Kai Leng replies in a slightly annoyed tone.

"If that's the way it's going to be..." Ben reaches into this pocket and pulls out a grenade, holds it up and places his hand in a position that shows like he's ready to pull the pin. "I'll detonate this grenade in my hand. We'll both die, and you get nothing."

"You're crazy!" Scorch shouts. "You can't kill yourself!"

"Trust me." Ben replies. "I know what I'm doing." His gaze then turns back to Kai Leng. "What's it going to be?" Kai Leng considered this.

"Very well." he says. "Your friend is free to go. I'll just tell my boss that he escaped during a fight."

As Ben puts his grenade away and takes a step towards Kai Leng, Scorch pulls out his DC-15 pistol and aims it right at Ben's head.

"What are you doing?!" Ben exclaims in shock.

"I won't let them take you!" Scorch blurts out. "I won't!"

"Let's not get hasty here." Ben says. "Please, don't do something that you'll regret." Scorch still had his pistol ready to fire. He was determined to not let Ben hand himself in to Cerberus. Who knows what they'll do to him? However, he quickly realises that Ben's just trying to protect the rebels, and he slowly, but surely, lowers his gun.

"I'll be fine." Ben assures him "You just get out safely with everyone else. Also, tell Emily that I'm sorry." Scorch considered this. He felt guilty of not stopping him.

"We'll get you back safely." he says in a sad tone. Ben says nothing and continues heading to the shuttle. When he reaches it, he and Kai Leng exchange stares.

"You've made a smart decision, kid." Kai Leng says with a smile.

"Don't call me 'kid'." Ben replies in a harsh tone. With that, they step onto the shuttle, but not before looking back at Scorch, who could do nothing but watch. The door closes and the shuttle heads back into the air. Knowing that he's just wasting time now, Scorch grabs Ben's M-8 Avenger on the ground and makes his move towards the train station.


	17. Chapter 16: Decimation

**Chapter 16 - Decimation**

Shepard took a moment to take the story in, understanding why Ben surrendered himself to the Collective. He didn't understand why Cerberus would do something like this, though. The group could hear the honking of trains in the distance, and Shepard knew that the Resistance is now pulling out of the city.

"It's my fault." Scorch says in a disappointed tone. "It's my fault that I didn't stop him."

Shepard places his hand on Scorch's shoulder. "It's not your fault." Shepard assures him. "Ben was simply acting on his instincts. It's what makes us human..." He quickly realised that Tali and Garrus were watching. He quickly adds "...or humanoids."

"Are you sure?" Scorch asks. Shepard's words seem to have cheered him up.

"Positive." Sheaprd replies. "Don't beat yourself up over it. We'll try and rescue him."

"I hate to break it to you..." says Garrus. "But we REALLY need to move."

"I called a shuttle to my position." Shepard says. "It'll be here any minute." Soon enough the shuttle does arrive. The group piles in one by one, starting with Tali, and ending with Shepard. As Shepard takes his seat next to Sam the door closes.

"Get us out of here, pilot." Shepard orders. "As quickly as possible."

"Yes, sir." the pilot replies. The shuttle lifts into the air and heads for the Normandy.

"Keelah..." exclaimed Tali, who was sitting next to Scorch. "Look!" She pointed at the Citadel. It had suddenly began to emit a beam of light, with the beam passing through the orange portal above. The shuttle had reached a safe enough distance from the city as a large blue light suddenly appears at the base of the Citadel. Shepard realised what it was; the core had exploded.

Small pods were also seen being ejected from the Citadel and heading out in various directions. Everyone in the shuttle saw as one-by-one, every block in City 17 was quickly reduced to rubble. The Citadel eventually collapsed in on itself as well. When all the chaos was over, all that remained was ruins. However, another portal started to emerge over the remains of the Citadel.

"My God." Shepard exclaims silently. Nobody said anything for the remainder of the trip.

Meanwhile, Kai Leng and Ben both watched the same event unfold. Ben was horrified by the outcome. He had no idea if the Resistance had made it. He then saw the train and let out a sigh of relief.

"This is what I mean't when I said that you made a smart decision." says Kai Leng. "If you had refused. The trains would've been destroyed and nobody would've made it out alive."

"What do you want from me?" Ben asks in a pissed off tone. Kai Leng then gets out a small device which hovers to the middle of the shuttle.

"It's not what I want." he says. Suddenly, the device shows a projection of a man. He was was wearing what looked like an expensive suit and was smoking a cigarette. "It's what he wants." says Kai Leng.

"You must be Mr. Walker." says the man being projected.

"And you must be the Illusive Man, head of Cerberus." Ben replies.

"You are correct." the Illusive Man replies back. "It's nice to meet your acquaintance."

"What do you want?" Ben asks.

The Illusive Man takes another smoke from his cigarette. "You see, the Collective is about bringing order and peace to this galaxy. You want peace, correct?"

"I do." Ben answers. "I also want freedom from the Combine."

"That is out of my jurisdiction, I'm afraid." says the Illusive Man. "However, this is where you come in. You tell us where your rebel base is, and we'll make sure that the Combine never bother your world again."

"No." Ben quickly hashes out. "I don't trust you."

The Illusive Man then looks around and sees no sign of Scorch. He looks to Kai Leng "Where's the other one?" he asks.

"He escaped, sir." Kai Leng responds.

"What a shame." The Illusive Man replies with a little hint of disappointment. He then looks to Ben "I hope you cooperate, you might not find Cerberus interrogations to be... merciful."

"I guess I'll find out for myself." says Ben. He's not afraid at what Cerberus might throw at him. With that, the Illusive Man's projection vanishes and the shuttle continues on it's course.

The Alliance shuttle lands in the Normandy shuttle bay. As soon as the doors open, the group get off. Shepard looks ahead to see that the bay was more busier than usual. Everyone had been taken off guard after what happened with City 17.

Shepard sees Boss, Fixer and Sev walking towards them. He turns to Scorch. "Your squad's coming." he says.

"Thanks, Shep." Scorch replies and he jogs over to join them.

"What happened?" Boss asks. "Where's Ben?" Scorch wasted no time in explaining what happened.

"We've got to get him out, somehow." says Fixer,

"And we will." Shepard quickly replies. "Only problem is that we don't know where Cerberus has taken him. And I can't organize a rescue mission without authorization from Hackett."

Samus walks over to join them. "Then we'll need to convince him, then." Shepard took this into consideration.

"OK, Samus." he says. "You, me and the Chief will try to convince Hackett to let us put a rescue mission together. As for everyone else, return to your duties." He saw Trishka and Grayson talking with Lightning. Lightning never set foot in City 17, so they're filling her in what happened. Shepard couldn't see Mike, though. "Where's Mike?" he asked.

"He went with rebels on the train." Samus answered. "He said that he was going to head towards White Forest."

"Very well." Shepard replies. "Look, we're wasting time here, so let's go and talk to Hackett."

"Sir, we're approaching the planet." says the shuttle pilot.

"Take us in, then." Kai Leng replies. Ben watches as the shuttle makes it's descent onto another planet. He was taken away from Earth and through a mass relay to what Kai Leng could describe as "a secluded destination". Once through the planet's atmosphere, he was taken in awe by the surface. It looked battered and the weather didn't help either, it was raining and there was lighting everywhere.

"We're coming into view of the outpost, sir." the shuttle pilot says again from the cockpit.

"Find us a place to land." Kai Leng replies again. The outpost looked ruined and abandoned. It was like a fierce hurricane smashed into it or something. The shuttle manages to land just outside the outpost.

"Just need to do something, quickly." says Kai Leng. As Ben was looking out the window, he felt a needle being injected into his shoulder. Ben started to feel dizzy and began to close his eyes. Before he blacked out completely, he managed to discover the name of their location; Hadley's Hope.

"You're saying that Ben surrendered himself to the Collective?" Hackett asks.

Shepard, the Chief and Samus are all standing in the vid comm room, discussing their plans to rescue Ben.

"That's right, sir." Shepard says. "I believe that he acted on his instincts and was trying to protect the rebels, instead of being selfish. We could use a guy like that on our side."

"If that's what you think, commander, then I'll authorize a rescue mission." says Hackett. "But, there's one issue. Where have Cerberus taken him?" Suddenly a woman appeared behind him, the woman was saying something, but the trio couldn't hear what she was saying. Hackett then turned back towards them as the woman walked away.

"Recent air traffic reports are saying that a shuttle was recently seen heading towards LV-426." he said.

"Your point?" Samus asks.

"LV-426 was supposed to be abandoned, after a Xenomorph infestation resulted in the destruction of the Hadley's Hope colony." Hackett continued. "Maybe Cerberus are holding him there."

"We'll try that, then." says Shepard. "I'll send the Chief, Lightning, and Delta Squad down there to rescue him."

"Sounds good, commander." Hackett replies. "Let me know when he's safe and sound on the Normandy."

"Yes, sir." Shepard replies with a salute.

"Hackett out." Hackett's projection vanishes from the vid comm.

"Joker, set a course for LV-426." Shepard orders.

"Roger that, commander." Joker replies over the comm. Shepard then looks to the Chief.

"Get Delta Squad and Lightning ready. You'll be going in one hour."


	18. Chapter 17: Interrogation

**Chapter 17: Interrogation**

Ben opened his eyes and was greeted by a blurry vision. He found himself sitting in a chair somehow. He tries to stand up, but something seems to be holding him down. As his vision clears up, he looks to his left and right and sees that his arms have been cuffed somehow. The same went for his legs. He looks around and finds himself in a dark room. However, there was a window to his right. It was dark outside, and it was raining. As the rain lashed against the window, an occasional lightning strike would illuminate the landscape, revealing ruins strewn across a barren wasteland.

The door in front of him opens, and Kai Leng, followed by two centurions, enters the room. As the door closes behind them, the Cerberus operative approaches Ben while the two centurions continue to walk in his footsteps. He proceeds to a crouch, so that he matches Ben's eyesight.

"Had a nice sleep?" Kai Leng sarcastically asks his captive. "We could move you to a better room if you're not satisfied."

"Fuck you." Ben weakly snaps back. He was not happy with the current situation he's being faced with. Kai Leng let out a quiet sigh, stood up and took a step backwards.

"I know this is difficult for you, I want to get straight to business." Kai Leng says calmly. "If I can recall correctly, you came from a Resistance base named White Forest. Where is it?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." was Ben's answer. Kai Leng nods to the centurion on his right. The centurion gets out what looked like a baton. Without saying anything, he strikes out at Ben. He screamed as the baton hits him, surging electricity through his whole body. A few seconds later, the baton is withdrawn, giving Ben a moment to take a breath. The two sounds he could mainly hear was his panting, and his heart slowly beating.

"There's more of that to come if you don't cooperate." Kai Leng calmly says. "The sooner you tell us the Resistance base, the sooner we could get this over with." Ben knew that he could be here forever, but had no idea why Cerberus have brought him here, instead of going to a secret location on Earth.

"Why have you brought me here?" he asks, hoping to get some answers.

"This place has been abandoned for years." Kai Leng responds. "If we were to interrogate you back on Earth, either the Resistance or the Alliance would come knocking. Bringing you here means we can do business without any outside interference."

"But why do you wish to know the location of White Forest?" Ben asks. "I don't understand."

"The Collective is all about bringing order to this wretched galaxy." Kai Leng explains. "We desire peace, just as the Alliance does. However, we simply do not see the same approach. The galaxy needs to be monitored. If we don't do something about it, we're eventually going to drive ourselves to extinction. If you tell us where you're based, we'll be able to protect you."

"Is that how you justify the innocent lives that you've slaughtered?" Ben angrily asks. "Shepard told me all about the Collective and what you do."

"Casualties are... unfortunate." Kai Leng replies. "But their deaths mean nothing. Remember this saying: You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs."

"Go fuck yourself!" Ben snaps back. Kai Leng clenches his left hand into a fist and strikes out at Ben, hitting him square on the nose, causing blood to seep out from Ben's nostrils. "Broke my fucking nose, you bastard!" Ben shouts out. He struggles, but is held down by the chair's cuffs.

"You should think of how you speak to me." Kai Leng firmly replies. "I can think of a thousand ways to make you suffer. Now I will ask again: Where is White Forest?"

"I ain't telling you shit!" Ben fires back. He was not afraid of Cerberus. Not afraid of how they were torturing him. He expected another baton strike, but Kai Leng had other plans. He grabs Ben's right arm with his left hand. Then he proceeds to stroke it with his sword, while at the same time, applying a bit of pressure. Ben cries in pain as the sword pierces his skin. While it was just a small slither, it was excruciating.

"See what I mean?" Kai Leng points out. "The longer we talk here, the more you suffer." Ben was feeling dizzy. Blood and sweat wasn't helping.

"One more time." Kai Leng says. "And I want you to think carefully this time. Where... is... White Forest?"

"Go to hell." Ben weakly replies. Kai Leng signals to the centurion again, and Ben feels the baton whack him once more. He yells out as the baton fries him with electricity once again. After that, Ben felt nothing, and fainted.

Kai Leng lets out another sigh. He turns to the centurion on his left. "Let me know as soon as he wakes up." he orders. "We'll try again." The centurion returns a salute, as an acknowledgement. With that, Kai Leng and the baton wielding centurion depart the room, leaving behind the other centurion and an unconscious Ben.

As the Normandy enters the orbit of LV-426, the Chief's strike team was in the shuttle bay, getting ready to deploy onto the planet for their mission. The Chief and Boss were being briefed by Shepard while Lightning and the rest of Delta Squad were already on board the shuttle, ready to deploy.

"Remember, this is a snatch and grab operation." says Shepard. "Head in there, grab Ben, then get out."

"Any other threats that we should be aware of, aside from Cerberus?" Boss asked.

"Not that I'm aware of." was Shepard's reply. "The colony was previously overrun by Xenomorphs, but their hive was destroyed when the colony's atmospheric processor's power source exploded."

"Wouldn't that have wiped out the whole colony?" asked Cortana, who was standing on a pedestal next to the trio.

"It would've." Shepard answered. "But some parts of the colony miraculously survived. There most likely won't be any Xenomorphs there, but I wouldn't rule out the possibility. That's why I want you to head in there and come out A.S.A.P."

"Understood, Commander." Chief replied.

"Just be sure to bring the kid back alive." says Shepard. "Good luck." With that, the Chief re-inserted Cortana back into his helmet, then he and Boss made their way towards the shuttle, where the rest of the team were waiting.

"So, what do we know about our destination?" Lightning asked as the two leaders arrived. She had an ear piece inserted into her right ear to establish communications with the rest of the team.

"LV-426 is one of three known moons orbiting the planet Calpamos, located in the Zeta II Reticuli system, 39 light years from Earth." Cortana responded. "The moon is christened by human colonists as Acheron and it's also the location of the former colony Hadley's Hope."

"A 'former' colony?" Fixer asked. "What happened?"

"Oh, goodie!" Scorch exclaimed quietly. "A history lesson!"

"Some colonists discovered a nest of Xenomorph eggs one day, and were all subsequently impregnated by facehuggers." Cortana explained. "Eventually the whole colony went to chaos and in the midst of it, the atmosphere processor exploded."

"Were there any survivors?" Lightning asked.

"There was, sadly, only one survivor from Hadley's Hope." Cortana replied in a sad tone. "A little girl named Newt. There were three other survivors from the Colonial Marines forces dispatched to the colony: Ellen Ripley, Corporal Dwayne Hicks and an android named Bishop. However, I must add that Ripley died shortly afterwards due to being impregnated with an Alien Queen."

"What do you mean by 'impregnated'?" Sev asks, curious about the term.

"When a facehugger attaches itself to a victim, it sends an embryo down their mouth and into their body." Cortana explains. "As time proceeds, the embryo grows into a chestburster. When it's ready, it would rip itself out of the host's chest, killing it. The chestburster would grow into a full sized Xenomorph within only a few hours."

"Ugh." Lightning blurts out with a look of disgust on her face. "That sounds horrible! How do we even know that these things exist?"

"The earliest known human victim was the Nostromo's executive officer, Kane." Cortana continued. "The majority of the crew was wiped out by the fully grown alien, but Ripley, who was the warrant officer of the ship at the time, ejected it into space, leaving her the only survivor."

"So let me get this straight." Scorch replies. "We're essentially giving birth to monsters if these 'facehuggers' leap onto us?"

"That is correct." Cortana answers.

"Well that settles it, then." says Scorch. "I'm not taking my helmet off at all for this mission, even if it's hot down there."

"Pretty sure there's nothing to worry, Scorch." the Chief replies. "Shepard said that there shouldn't be any there."

"OK, I've had enough education for one day." said Lightning. "Let's go get the kid. The sooner we start, the sooner we can come back."

"I agree with Lightning." the Chief replies as he and Boss proceed to sit down. "Take her down, Cortez."

"Roger that, sir." Cortez replies from the cockpit. "Estimated time of arrival is 7 minutes. Sit back and enjoy the ride." With that, the shuttle lifts off the ground, flies out of the Normandy's shuttle bay and began it's descent to LV-246.

"You know what this reminds me of?" Scorch asked out loud.

"Of what?" Sev replies, who was sitting next to him.

Scorch turns round to Sev. "Reminds me of what happened to you."

"What do you mean?" Lightning asks. She was curious. "What happened?"

"It happened before we came to this galaxy." Boss started. "We were on the Wookie homeworld of Kashyyyk during a major battle in the Clone Wars. At one point, we all manned turrets in separate locations to take down a Separatist cruiser."

"Boss, Scorch and I managed to regroup." Fixer continued on from where Boss left off. "However, Sev replied on the comms that he was being overrun by multiple hostiles. We wanted to go and help him, but we were ordered by Master Jedi Yoda to pull out and make way for the main forces to liberate the planet. Few days later, we got word that Sev had survived and was being held hostage, so we were quickly sent on a mission to recover him, and we succeeded."

"Order 66 began soon afterwards." Boss took over again. "This is when the clones were ordered to hunt down and execute all the Jedi. We were ordered to find a Jedi who was on Kashyyyk at the same time our mission was going on."

"We instead found an artifact that teleported us to this galaxy." Scorch was talking this time. "At first, we didn't know who to trust, but we eventually sided with the super friendly Alliance. This mission we're going on now, to recover Ben, reminds me of that time."

"I see." Lightning responded, satisfied with the explanation.

Several minutes past by before the shuttle entered the atmosphere of LV-426. The whole thing rumbled as it continued to descend.

"Hold on, everyone!" Cortez shouted from the cockpit. Everyone braced themselves as Cortez maneuvered the shuttle through dark clouds that burst lightning bolts non-stop. Soon enough, the shuttle breaks through the clouds and Hadley's Hope was visible. The surface was dark and foggy, and the constant rain wasn't helping.

Hadley's Hope was almost non-existent. There was debris everywhere and many structures showed significant damage. There was one building on the outskirts of the colony that caught everyone's attention, since it looked like it was unharmed.

"That's odd." said Fixer. "I thought the majority of the colony was obliterated."

"That is true." Cortana replied. "That particular structure looks fairly new and recent. Must have been set up by Cerberus."

"Then that must be the building the kid's being held in." Sev concluded.

"What are we waiting for, then?" Scorch asked. "Let's go get him!"

The Chief nodded. "Take us down, Cortez." he said. "Make sure they don't see us."

"Yes, sir." Cortez answered. The shuttle landed, far enough so that they wouldn't be seen. The doors opened, and the group made they way out.

"Let's move out." the Chief commanded. And with that, the group made their way towards the building.


	19. Chapter 18: A New Foe

**Chapter 18 - A New Foe**

The Chief's strike team make their way towards the Cerberus structure. Once they were close enough, the Chief sees two Cerberus troopers on point, guarding entry to the door. He ordered the group to take cover.

"What is it, Chief?" Lightning asks.

"Two Cerberus assault troopers are guarding the door ahead." Cortana answers over the comm. "I've scanned the exterior and this is the only way inside."

"There's six of us and only two of them." Scorch suggests. "Why don't we take them on?"

"Don't be stupid." Fixer responds. "We don't want this to turn into a bloodbath."

"I'll take care of them." Sev volunteers.

The Chief considered this for a second. He didn't want Cerberus to be alerted this early into the mission. However, it's the only way inside the base, so it was a risk that they'd have to take.

"Go ahead." the Chief eventually says. "Just be quick and quiet."

"I will, sir." Sev replied back. And with that, he makes his slow approach to the guards, taking cover between the various crates scattered around the area as he closes in on his prey. He crouched down behind a crate and got his DC-15 pistol ready when he heard a conversation between the guards.

"Ever wondered why there are so many crates here?" one of the troopers asked.

"I've heard that the boss is thinking of setting up a larger base on this planet." the other one replied. "Also heard that they're sending some reinforcements in a few days to help with our Xenomorph situation. We're running low on supplies. At the rate they're depleting right now, if help wasn't coming, we'd probably be dead within a week."

"Well, shit." the first trooper exclaimed. At that precise moment, Sev leapt into action. He kicked the first trooper over as he vaulted over the crate, shot the second trooper in the head with his pistol, then proceeded to finish the first trooper off with another well placed shot between the eyes. The whole thing happened in a blink of an eye. Not a single word was uttered.

"Easy." Sev quietly exclaimed. The rest of the group came over.

"That was impressive." Cortana complimented. "Never seen anyone else aside from a Spartan be that quick in putting down foes before."

"He can be described as a 'badass' in a way." said Scorch. "Now can we hurry inside? I'm getting sick of this wet weather!"

"Let's move." the Chief ordered. The group made their way through the door, into the base and out of the rain. They were greeted by a small hallway. The walls were painted yellow and white, typical for Cerberus, and there was more crates placed in front of the said walls. At the end of the hallway, there was a junction that split off into two separate ways, one going left and the other going right.

"Seems like we're going to have to split up." Fixer suggests.

"Good thinking, Fixer." Boss agrees. "I'll take Scorch and Lightning with me and we'll go right."

"Understood." the Chief acknowledges. "Sev and Fixer will come with me and Cortana. We'll meet back here within half an hour. If one of us finds Ben, we'll meet back sooner."

"Very well." Boss replies. He turns to Scorch and Lightning. "Let's go."

"You got it, Boss!" Scorch responds.

"Sure thing, sir." Lightning answers. And with that, they headed off and turned right.

"Follow me." the Chief says to Sev and Fixer. They headed down the other way, turning a corner and met with another hallway, with more crates and doorways to other rooms, all having their names above. There were nobody patrolling. The trio assumed that most of the guards are either on break or sleeping. One of the rooms they encountered was called the 'Security Room'.

"We might want to check this room out." Cortana suggested. "It might lead us to Ben's whereabouts."

"Good thinking." the Chief agreed. He gestured to Fixer and Sev who were up ahead. "In here." The commandos turned back and followed the Chief into the room. There were terminals everywhere, with somebody at the monitor screens at the other end of the room. He was sitting down, with his feet resting on the desk. The group could hear him snoring.

"Good thing he's asleep." Fixer says queitly. "If he was awake when Sev killed the two guards out front, we'd be in trouble."

"Better take him out right now." advised Cortana. With that, Sev crept up towards the security guard and quickly slit the guard's throat with his vibroblade. He let the guard's body fall out of the chair and collapse onto the cold floor below. Chief and Fixer joined back up with Sev and the trio surrounded the terminal.

"See if you can put me into-" Cortana began.

"Let me handle this, Cortana." replied Fixer, who was already pushing buttons.

"But-" Cortana began again.

"Let him." Sev responds. "He's qualified for doing stuff like this."

"If you say so." says Cortana. The Chief and Sev watched as Fixer continued to type away on the terminal.

"Let's see..." he began. "If I press this, we'll be able to..." Fixer presses one of the buttons, and the monitor's screen switches to a hallway, littered with doors. One of them however had to Cerberus troopers posted outside. A centurion walks up with a baton.

"How's the prisoner?" he asks one of the guards.

"He's just waking up, sir." the guard responded. With his question answered, the centurion walks through the doorway and into the room.

"Ben must be the prisoner he's talking about." Cortana theorises. "Where is he located?" Fixer pressed more buttons and brings a map up.

"It must be the cell blocks." he says. "But they're on the other side of the base, where the others are." He continued pressing panels.

"We'd better let Boss know of-" the Chief began.

"Wait." Fixer interrupts him. "There seems to be something else."

"What is it?" Sev asks. "Bring it up." Fixer does exactly that, pressing more buttons and changing the monitor's view once again. This time, it shows Kai Leng standing up looking at a screen. There was someone else, but it was hard to see as he was standing quite a distance away.

"How far are you from us right now?" he asks.

"We're about ten minutes away." the voice at the other end replied. "This trip better be worth it. The emperor doesn't like to be disappointed."

"Of course it will be." Kai Leng assures the figure. "I'm sure this would be a suitable location for the Empire to stage a base in this galaxy."

The figure came closer. As it did, it revealed itself to be a cyborg, half-droid and half-organic. Sev and Fixer already knew who it was, but they were in disbelief. It was General Grievous.

"Very well, human." Grievous replied. "See you soon." And with that, the screen was turned off, and Kai Leng walked out of the camera's view.

"Fierfek!" Sev cursed out loud.

"What is it?" Cortana asked. "More importantly. WHO was that?"

"Just a second, ma'am." Fixer said. "Delta Four-Oh to Delta Three-Eight, come in."

"Three-Eight here" Boss replied on the comm. "What is it, Fixer?"

"We've found Ben's location." Fixer began. "He's being held in one of the prison cells that's on your side of the base."

"Thanks, Fixer." Boss acknowledged. "We'll head there now. Nobody's seen us, yet."

"There's... another thing, Boss." Fixer added.

"What is it?" Boss asked.

Fixer let out a deep sigh. Boss was waiting on him to spill the beans. "General Grievous is alive."

There was a moment of silence. "No." Boss replied. "No, that's impossible. Grievous is dead!"

"Apparently not, sir." Fixer said. "And he's on his way here right now. I think we need to extract immediately. We know what he's capable of."

"No." Boss shoots back. "We're so close. We'll continue our search. You've done all you can, now fall back outside."

"There's one more thing, sir." says Sev. "Outside, when I was sneaking up on the guards, I overheard them saying that the base was being extended, and that reinforcements were coming in a few days. We also listened to a conversation between Kai Leng and Grievous. Kai Leng said that he was sure that this place would be an ideal location for something called 'the Empire' to set up shop."

"Oh no..." Boss quietly exclaimed. "That doesn't sound good."

"Is there anything we can do?" the Chief asks.

"It's your call, Chief." Boss responds. "My advice would be to pull out. You have no idea what that droid is capable of."

"Very well." the Chief says. "We'll head outside. You be careful."

"We will, Chief." Boss replied. "Three-Eight out."

"What was that?" Lightning asked.

"We just need to hurry, that's all." Boss responded. He wanted to get the mission done as soon as possible so that he could warn Shepard.

"You don't sound happy, Boss." Scorch said. "What's going on?" Boss didn't want to tell Scorch, but they were like brothers. He had to.

"General Grievous..." he trodded off. "...is alive."

"WHAT?!" Scorch yells out in disbelief.

"Ouch!" Lightning grunts out as she clutches her ear. Scorch's yell was so loud that it made her ear hurt. "That hurt!"

"Sorry." Scorch apologized. "But that's impossible. The reports stated that bucket of bolts died on Utapau!"

"That's right." Boss confirmed. "He did die. Somehow he was brought back and is heading our way."

"Wait a second." Lightning said. She was confused by what's happening. "Who is this 'General Grievous'?

"He's from our galaxy." Scorch explained. "He was one of the commanding officers in the Separatist army. He's also an expert at lightsaber combat, wielding lightsabers from the fallen Jedi that he has killed. We almost got him once."

"Sounds like someone we shouldn't underestimate."

"We shouldn't." Boss agrees. "A lot of clones were killed because of him. You don't know him like we do, so stay close to us if we encounter him."

"Understood." Lightning replied. The trio continued their way through the hallways and rounding corners until they came across the guarded doorway, with the two Cerberus troopers stationed outside.. They take cover behind the wall.

"Let me take care of them." Lightning insisted, and with that, she set her gunblade into blade mode and charged out ahead. Boss and Scorch watched as she quickly dispatched the guards with ease.

"Nice work, Lightning." Boss complimented.

"Thanks." she replied.

"What's going on out there?" the centurion called from room. He had heard the scuffle outside. The trio take cover from both sides of the door; Boss and Lighting on one side, and Scorch on the other.

The door opened and the Centurion walked out. He saw the bodies of the guards on the floor. Before he could radio for backup, Scorch uses his DC-17 to bash him on the head so hard, that he immediately collapsed to the floor. He wasn't dead, but he was out cold.

"Sleep tight!" Scorch said sarcastically.

Boss looks at Lightning. "Wait out here and keep on watch for anyone." Lightning nodded, understanding her orders, and stayed put while the commandoes headed into the room. They scanned the room, looking for Ben. As soon as they saw him, they lower their DC-17s.

"Oh, fierfek..." Scorch quietly exclaimed with fear.


	20. Chapter 19: The Escape

**Chapter 19 - The Escape**

Ben was lying on the floor, breathing slowly. His rebel uniform was torn up and he was covered in cuts and bruises, clearly signs of torture. This gave an impression on Boss, thinking that Ben was brave for undergoing pain like this. Not many prisoners would have.

"See if you can wake him up." Boss asks Scorch. With that, Scorch knelt down and gave Ben a shake.

"Hey, Ben!" he said. "Wake up!" It didn't take long for Ben to open his eyes.

"Urgh..." he groaned. He tilted his head sideways and then fixated his eyes on Scorch. "Is that you, Scorch?"

"Damn right, it is!" Scorch replied. "I told you we'd come and get you out of here."

"Yeah." Ben responded. His voice was rather weak. "You did."

"Chief, this is Boss." Boss said on the comm. "Do you read me, Chief?"

A few seconds had passed by when the Chief's voice is heard. "This is the Chief. What's your situation?"

"We've found Ben." Boss answered. "He's weak, but he should be able to pull through. We're on our way to the landing zone now."

"Roger that." the Chief replied. "Be advised, we just spotted a small ship landing outside the base. It's probably Grievous."

"Understood." Boss quickly said. He still couldn't believe that Grievous was still alive. "We'll be out of here as soon as possible. Boss out." He then turns to Scorch, who's still kneeling over a recovering Ben. "We need to move. Grievous has just landed."

"Can you walk?" Scorch asks Ben.

"I think I can, yes." was Ben's short reply.

"Let me help you up." Scorch grabbed Ben's arm and slowly, but steady, managed to help Ben stand on his feet. The trio made their way towards the doorway where Lightning was waiting for them.

"Hold still." Lightning says to Ben. She quickly pulls up a orange interface on her arm and pressed a few buttons on it. Suddenly, Ben felt better. Not in the best condition, but slightly better than he was a few seconds earlier.

"What just happened?" Ben asks. "I feel a bit better now."

"I just gave you a dose of medi-gel" Lightning replied. "It's not much, but should give you a little boost before we get you treated."

"Will you be able to use a gun?" Boss asks Ben.

"Yeah." Ben replied. Boss quickly proceeded to hand his DC-15 over, but Scorch quickly stops him.

"Hold on a sec, Boss." Scorch said. He squats down over the unconscious Centurion and picks up his M-96 Mattock along with a few thermal clips. He then presents Ben with the rifle.

"Pretty sure he won't be needing this." Scorch said. "On the account that he's currently out cold, that is." Ben thought about it for a second and politely takes the Mattock.

"Thanks." Ben replied. "I think it's time for some payback."

"You boys done socializing, yet?" Lightning asks impatiently. "We need to get moving."

"I agree with Lightning." Boss agrees. "We need to rendezvous with the others outside the base. Let's go."

Meanwhile, Kai Leng was in the security room checking the cameras. He had somehow heard gunfire in the base and made his way over to the room as quickly as possible. He was watching the camera placed in the room that Ben was being held. He saw as Boss and Scorch enter the room, help Ben up and quickly left the room as soon as possible. Suddenly, he heard coughing and wheezing. He turned round, and saw General Grievous enter the room, followed by two other droids, both holding staffs.

"About time you showed up." Kai Leng said. "And I see you brought backup."

"These are my Magna Guards." Grievous responded. "They serve me well."

"I see." Kai Leng replies. "Anyway, we've got a small issue that needs dealing with."

"What seems to be the problem?" Grievous asks menacingly. "I thought you said you had things under control here."

"We did." Kai Leng replies. "But it seems like we've had a little bit of a break in. I'm getting reports of dead and unconscious troops, and our prisoner is on the run."

"You have a prisoner?" Grievous asks, curious to learn more.

"Yes." Kai Leng quickly responds. "He's a rebel from a resistance force fighting our Combine allies on Earth. This isn't the same Earth that the Alliance has, though."

"A parallel world, maybe?" Grievous suggests.

"That might be possible." Kai Leng considers. "Anyway, we're in need of the location of the resistance base. We're trying to get it out of him, but he just won't cooperate."

"Let me deal with him." Grievous insists, followed by more coughing and wheezing. "With someone like me around, he won't be running for long. Soon, he'll be begging for mercy, and that's when he'll give the information you need."

"Very well." Kai Leng says, permitting Grievous to pursue Ben. "We need him alive though, so try not to kill him."

"Of course." Grevious replies in a menacing tone once again. With that, he and his guards leave the room to search for the runaway rebel.

Boss, Scorch, Ben and Lightning made their way through the base, backtracking towards the entrance of the base. As Boss rounds a corner, he immediately steps back and orders the group to stay put.

"What is it?" Ben asks.

"It's Grievous." Boss replies. "He's just down the hallway. If we're quiet, he'll probably pass." Grievous walked down the hallway, stopping at the junction. He looked round, seeing no movement. Suddenly, he heard whispering coming from the hallway he was facing.

"Wait here." he instructs his guards. "I think we have company." With that, he starts walking towards the source of the whispering. The source came from the group, thinking about how they're going to get past him.

"Um, guys?" Lightning whispers as the sound of footsteps grew louder and louder. "I think he's heard us..."

"No point in hiding then." Ben mutters. He proceeds to rush out to meet their hunters head on.

Scorch tries to stop him by reaching out to pull him back. "No, wait!" he exclaims, but it was too late.

Ben aimed his Mattock at Grevious, who didn't seem threatened by this at all. He let out a small laugh.

"You must be the prisoner that Kai Leng was talking about. I hope you'll cooperate with me. My ways are... different." With that, his two arms suddenly transformed into four arms.

"What the fuck?!" Ben exclaims quietly.

Grevious grabbed four small, identical objects from the inside of his cape. Suddenly, these objects emitted four beams of light, two green and two blue.

"We need to run." Boss says from behind Ben. "Now!" With that, he grabbed Ben's shoulder, pulling him back. The group quickly started dashing back the way they came from, with Grievous and his guards in hot pursuit.

"Don't stop running!" Boss shouts.

"We're basically coming back the way we came from!" Ben replies. "We're never going to get out of here!"

"Could be worse, you know!" Scorch shouts out. "Could be both Grievous AND Kai Leng chasing us!"

"You're not helping!" Lightning responds in a frustrated tone. She then thought of an idea. She had packed a stun grenade just in case they needed it. Now was the best time to use it.

"Cover your eyes, boys!" she shouted. She then pulled the pin on the grenade and tossed it behind them. The grenade exploded, blinding their pursuers.

"Now!" she exclaims. The group turns round and rush past the blinded general and his followers. Now they were on the right track again.

"This is the Master Chief to Boss." the Chief says on the comm. "What's your status?"

"We're not in a good situation, Chief." Boss responds back. "General Grievous is hot on our tail, but we're en route to the LZ."

"How soon can you get here?" the Chief asks.

"At this rate, about two minutes." Boss answers. "Just be ready to take off once we arrive."

"Will do." the Chief replies. "Chief out."

"What is happening down there?" the Illusive Man asks Kai Leng, who's facing him on the same screen he had used to contact Grievous before his arrival.

"The Alliance seems to have sent in a rescue team for the boy." Kai Leng replies. "General Grievous has also arrived as well and is pursuing him as we speak."

The Illusive Man lets out a sigh as he sits down in a white chair. He ignites a cigar and proceeded to take a puff from it. A moment of silence passed before the Illusive Man spoke again.

"Let him go." he says. "We found someone else who's capable of telling us the location. In fact, he's the same guy who tracked Ben back in City 17."

"Understood." Kai Leng responds. "I'll make my way back as soon as possible. This base seems to be as good as abandoned."

"No. I want you to stay there, Leng" the Illusive Man orders. "I'll send some backup down to help secure the base."

"Yes, sir." Kai Leng replies. With that, The Illusive Man disappeared from the screen, and Kai Leng proceeded to make preparations for reinforcements.

Boss, Lightning and Scorch make their way towards the shuttle. The Chief was outside guarding. The storm seems to have gotten more intense since they first entered the base.

"We have to go, now!" Cortana suggested.

"You don't have to tell us twice." Boss replies. The group got onto the shuttle, but Lightning scanned the shuttle for Ben.

"Wait!" she exclaims. "Ben's not on board!"

"He's not?" Fixer asks. "I thought he was following you guys!"

"He was!" Lightning replies. "He must have fallen behind!"

"There's nothing we can do now." the Chief quickly says. "We need to go."

"Fierfek!" Scorch shouts out loud. "I'm going back for him. We didn't come all the way out here for nothing!" With that, he jumped off the shuttle, and instantly began dashing back towards the base.

"Wait!" the Chief exclaimed. He, Boss, Lightning and Sev all jumped off the shuttle and followed.

Ben was exhausted. He ran past the door and into the light outside. He then tripped, falling face first onto the ground. He tried to crawl to safety and made an attempt to get back on his feet, but he was held down by Grievous, who had caught up to him.

"You are one feisty human." Grievous complemented. "You would fit very well in the place where I came from. Yet here you are, running from me. I ask, why?"

"Because you're chasing me, you bastard!" Ben shouts out.

"Of course, of course." Grievous mutters. "But enough games. Where are your so called 'rebels' hiding out?"

"I'm going to give you the exact answer I gave Kai Leng." Ben answers. "Go to hell!"

"So be it." Grievous simply says. A moment of silence came by, then Grievous held up one of his green lightsabers to Ben's chest. Ben could feel the weapon pierce his skin. He screamed in pain as Grievous crossed it from one side of his chest, to the other. Grievous continued this method of torture across Ben's whole body, not stopping until the young rebel gives him the information he needed.

"Hey, bolt bucket!" someone shouted. Grievous looked up, and saw Scorch standing there, with his DC-17 aimed directly at him.

"Well, look who we have here..." Grievous said out loud. "Delta Six-Two... What do you think you're doing here, clone?"

"Saving my friend!" Scorch shouts back. "But let me ask one question. How are you still alive?!"

"That's a simple query to answer." Grievous replies. "I was rebuilt, since the Empire thought I could still be useful." He looks to Ben, who's writhing in pain on the ground. "As for your 'friend', he's going to die. As shall you..." Without thinking twice, Scorch fired his blaster rifle, sending a burst of bolts towards Grievous. All the bolts fired hit him.

"You know what?!" Grievous suddenly spoke out loud in anger. "I think I'll kill YOU first!" He then charged directly at the clone. Scorch braced himself, but then the Chief came out from nowhere and tackled Grievous to the ground. This allowed Scorch to run over to help Ben.

"What do we have here?!" Grievous asks angrily. He didn't like the fact that this green soldier had stopped him from killing the commando.

"I'm a Spartan." the Chief calmly replies. He kept his cool as he kept Greivous pinned to the ground. Suddenly, Grevious threw the Chief off him, and stood back up. The Chief continually dodged every move that Grievous threw at him.

"Out of my way, Spartan!" Grievous yelled out. He was desperate to get back on the rebel.

"I don't think so." the Chief replied.

Meanwhile, Scorch made his way towards Ben. However, the two Magna Guards blocked his path. He had no time for this. Ben was dying. He wasn't going to let a pack of droids stop him. He raised his DC-17 to fire, then suddenly, a black creature came out of nowhere and tackled one of the guards to the ground, with the other one heading to his aid. It looked humanoid, but with a very long tail. More of these creatures came out from nowhere and started attacking the Magna Guards.

One of the creatures noticed Scorch and lunged for him. Suddenly, a blaster bolt from behind the commando impacts it, killing it. Scorch looked behind him and saw Sev with his DC-17 with the sniper rifle attachment. Sev nodded his head, and Scorch proceeded to help Ben, crouching down next to him.

"Are you OK?!" he asked in a scared tone.

"No." Ben replied weakly. "I'm not OK..." At that moment, one of the black creatures raced towards them. Scorch quickly pulled out his DC-15 sidearm and fired. The bolt pierced the creature in the head, forcing it to collapse onto the ground, dead.

"Let's go!" Scorch exclaims. He wrapped Ben's left arm around his shoulder and helped him up, walking in the direction of Lightning and Boss.

"What are these things?!" Lightning shouted out, as she fired her rifle at one of the creatures, riddling it with holes.

"They're Xenomorphs!" Cortana answered on the comm. "Be careful, they have acidic blood!" At that moment, a group of Xenomorphs pounced on one of the Magna Guards. The other one tried to help, but he too was quickly overrun by another group.

Grievous knew this is a battle he couldn't win. He looks to the Chief. "Mark my words, Spartan!" he shouted. "Whatever's happened here today won't stop the Galactic Empire!"

"Galactic Empire?" Lightning thought to herself.

"When we arrive in numbers, the Alliance is finished!" Grievous finishes shouting. With that, he turns round and heads back into the base, slicing at the Xenomorphs and leaving the helpless Magna Guards to die.

The group continued laying waste to the Xenomorphs as Scorch helped Ben towards the shuttle.

"How you're holding up, Ben?" Scorch asked.

Ben let out a weak groan. "I don't think I'm going to make it..." he responded.

"Oh, shut up." said Scorch. "You're going to be fine!" He pointed to the shuttle. "We're almost there!"

The rest of the group followed the two as they got onto the shuttle. As everyone boarded, Ben collapsed onto the floor.

"Oh no..." Lightning whispers. "Are we too late?"

Scorch knelt down to try and wake Ben up. "Come on!" he shouted. "Don't die on us!"

"Blast!" Boss exclaimed, before turning to look at the cockpit. "Full speed towards the Normandy, Cortez!" he ordered. "On the double!"

The shuttle made it's way off the planet and flew at it's top speed towards the Normandy. At that moment, a Cerberus cruiser appeared from the nearest mass relay and approached the planet. It soon enough started firing it's guns, but the Normandy's shields managed to absorb the firepower. The shuttle quickly managed to land inside the hanger bay.

"The away team is back in the Kodiak, Commander!" Joker exclaimed.

"Nicely done." Shepard responded. "Get us the hell out of here!" He then raced down to the hanger bay.

The Normandy flew towards the mass relay, while dodging the rounds fired by the cruiser. It wasn't long before the ship was through the relay and on course for the Citadel.

Meanwhile, in the shuttle bay, Shepard was there to greet the team. "I'm glad you all made it out in one piece." he happily stated. He then looks down and sees Ben on the floor, not moving at all.

"He's been seriously injured." Cortana quickly said before Shepard could utter a single word. "He needs immediate medical attention if he's going to survive."

"We'll get on that." Shepard responded. "Joker, have Dr. Chakwas get a bed ready in the med-bay."

"Aye-aye, Commander." Joker answered on the comm. "Could the lovely Dr. Chakwas please get a bed ready for an incoming patient in the med-bay?"

Shepard looked to the Chief. "Pick him up and bring him to the med-bay, but be careful. We don't want to lose him."

"Of course." the Chief replied. He knelt down to pick Ben up, placed him over his shoulder and followed Shepard to the medical bay.

"I'm coming, too." Scorch insisted. "I want to be sure that he's going to pull through."

"That's very nice of you, Scorch." Shepard replied. "But I don't want things to turn out for the worst if he dies." He looked towards the rest of the team. "If anything happens, I'll have Chakwas let you all know." He nodded to the Chief, who continued walking on. Shepard looked towards Boss. "Besides, I have another mission for you and your team."

"Go ahead." Boss responded.

"We've had reports of a downed vessel on the surface of Copernicus." Shepard continued. "I want your squad to go with Samus and salvage as much data as you can find."

"Sounds fishy to me." said Sev. "Remember the last time we went on a data gathering mission, Boss?"

"Yes, I know." Boss replied. He knew what Sev was talking about. He looked to Shepard, who was confused at the current conversation.

"During the Clone Wars, we were sent on a mission to salvage data from the RAS Prosecutor, which was actually our home before we were deployed to active duty." he began. "Contact had been lost, so we were sent to find out what happened. Turned out that the ship had been taken over by Trandoshan mercenaries and slavers."

"Sounds like that wasn't easy." Shepard commented.

"It wasn't." Boss continued. "We were split up to gather data from four different areas of the ship. The trandoshans managed to capture both Sev and Scorch, but Fixer and I managed to rescue them. We soon discovered that the trandoshans were planning to sell the ship to the separatists for droid support."

"What happened when you found that plan out?" Shepard asked.

"We managed to rid the ship of the lizards and held out against the droids." Scorch replied. "The Republic soon came in with reinforcements to secure the ship. Mission accomplished!"

Shepard took all of this into his head. It was interesting to hear one of the missions that Delta Squad had been on.

"I promise you that this salvaging mission will be a lot easier." he assured the team. "At least I hope so."

"We'll take your word for it, Shepard." Fixer replied. "Believe me, we have been in much tougher situations before."

"That's good to hear." Shepard responded with relief. "I'll allow you guys to relax for a while. You all look like you've been through hell."

"You could say that again." Sev agreed.

"What about me, Shepard?" Lightning asked. She had many things on her mind, especially about what Grievous said about this 'Galactic Empire'. She decided not to talk about it, as Shepard might not know, either.

"Feel free to relax." Shepard suggested. "Though there might be some jobs I might require you to do later."

"Very well, Shepard." Lightning replied. She let out a sigh. "I'm worried about Ben."

"Don't worry, Light." Scorch assured her. "Shepard said that Chakwas will let us know if anything happens. And if Shepard made me believe that, surely you can, too."

"Yeah." Lightning quickly admitted. "You're right."

"That ends the debriefing, I guess." Shepard said. "Everyone, you're dismissed." Everyone split up while Shepard made his way towards the medical bay to check on Ben.


End file.
